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Clostridium carboxidivorans-Clostridium kluyveri CO Chain-Elongation Coculture

Community ID CommunityMech:000266
Ecological State ENGINEERED
Environment anaerobic CO-fed laboratory stirred-tank bioreactor
ENVO:01001405

A defined anaerobic synthetic coculture pairing the autotrophic solventogenic acetogen Clostridium carboxidivorans with the chain-elongating bacterium Clostridium kluyveri. In CO/CO2-fed stirred-tank bioreactors, C. kluyveri elongates C2 products to organic acids, and C. carboxidivorans reduces those acids to longer-chain alcohols such as butanol and hexanol. The system is DOE-relevant because it couples waste-gas/syngas fermentation, carbon utilization, and production of liquid fuels and platform chemicals.

Taxonomy

Taxon Ontology ID Functional Roles Abundance
Clostridium carboxidivorans NCBITaxon:217159
PRIMARY_PRODUCER CROSS_FEEDER
ABUNDANT
  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Clostridium carboxidivorans and Clostridium kluyveri"
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "increased autotrophic growth and ethanol formation by Clostridium carboxidivorans"
Clostridium kluyveri NCBITaxon:1534
CROSS_FEEDER
ABUNDANT
  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Clostridium carboxidivorans and Clostridium kluyveri"
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Clostridium kluyveri monocultures in batch operated stirred-tank bioreactors"

Ecological Interactions

Ecological interaction network for Clostridium carboxidivorans-Clostridium kluyveri CO Chain-Elongation Coculture Bipartite graph where circle nodes represent taxa and colored rectangles represent ecological interactions (cross-feeding, mutualism, syntrophy, competition, commensalism).
Taxon
Cross-feeding
Mutualism
Syntrophy
Competition
Commensalism
Niche partitioning
Colonization facilitation
Strain competition
Predation

Acetogen-Chain Elongator Product Coupling

CROSS_FEEDING

Source Taxon: Clostridium carboxidivorans

Target Taxon: Clostridium kluyveri

Metabolites: carbon monoxide (CHEBI:17245), carbon dioxide (CHEBI:16526), acetate (CHEBI:30089), ethanol (CHEBI:16236)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Syngas fermentation with acetogens is known to produce mainly acetate and ethanol efficiently"
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "growth and chain elongation in the first bioreactor"

Organic Acid Reduction to Longer-Chain Alcohols

CROSS_FEEDING

Source Taxon: Clostridium kluyveri

Target Taxon: Clostridium carboxidivorans

Metabolites: butyrate (CHEBI:17968), hexanoate (CHEBI:30776), 1-butanol (CHEBI:28885), 1-hexanol (CHEBI:87393)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Organic acids produced by C. kluyveri were reduced by C. carboxidivorans to the corresponding alcohols butanol and hexanol"
  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "threefold increase in final butanol concentration and enabled hexanol production"

Two-Stage CO Partial Pressure Division of Labor

NICHE_PARTITIONING

Metabolites: carbon monoxide (CHEBI:17245), ethanol (CHEBI:16236), 1-butanol (CHEBI:28885), 1-hexanol (CHEBI:87393)

Evidence

  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "100 mbar CO and additional sulfide supply enabled growth and chain elongation in the first bioreactor"
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "800 mbar CO resulted in an efficient reduction of organic acids and de-novo synthesis of C2-C6 alcohols"

Associated Datasets

Dataset Type Repository Accession
Batch stirred-tank C. carboxidivorans-C. kluyveri FISH-FC coculture study
PubMed/PMC-indexed synthetic coculture study using FISH-FC to monitor C. carboxidivorans and C. kluyveri under CO/CO2-fed batch bioreactor conditions. 		PHENOTYPE OTHER PMID:34669248
Continuous reactor cascade C. carboxidivorans-C. kluyveri alcohol production study
PubMed/PMC-indexed follow-up using the same C. carboxidivorans and C. kluyveri species pair in a two-stage continuous stirred-tank reactor cascade for ethanol, butanol, and hexanol production from CO. 		PHENOTYPE OTHER PMID:37110426

Environmental Factors

Factor Value Unit
CO partial pressure 100 mbar and 800 mbar CO process zones N/A
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "100 mbar CO and additional sulfide supply enabled growth and chain elongation"
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "800 mbar CO resulted in an efficient reduction of organic acids"
Continuous CO/CO2 gassing continuous CO/CO2 gassing N/A
  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "continuous CO/CO2 -gassing"
Sulfide supply additional sulfide supply N/A
  • PMID:37110426 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "A continuous supply of sulfide led to increased autotrophic growth and ethanol formation by Clostridium carboxidivorans"
pH pH 6.0 chain elongation condition N/A
  • PMID:34669248 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "chain elongation activity was observed at pH 6.0"

Growth Media

Anaerobic CO/CO2-fed clostridial stirred-tank coculture

Atmosphere ANAEROBIC

Composition

Component Concentration Unit CHEBI
Carbon monoxide N/A N/A CHEBI:17245
Carbon dioxide N/A N/A CHEBI:16526
Ethanol N/A N/A CHEBI:16236
Acetate N/A N/A CHEBI:30089

Preparation notes: The curated culture context is anaerobic stirred-tank bioreactor cocultivation with continuous CO/CO2 gassing; exact mineral salts are not asserted here.

Evidence

PMID:34669248

"batch-operated stirred-tank bioreactors with continuous CO/CO2 -gassing"

PMID:37110426

"continuously operated cascade of two stirred-tank reactors"