Systems biology of the butanol-producing Clostridium acetobutylicum: new source of biofuel and chemicals/COSMIC2

生产丁醇的丙酮丁醇梭菌的系统生物学：生物燃料和化学品的新来源/COSMIC2

基本信息

批准号：
BB/I004513/1
负责人：
John King
金额：
$ 29.41万
依托单位：
University of Nottingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2010 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FI004513%2F1
关键词：
Systems biology butanol producing Clostridium

项目摘要

By 2030, worldwide energy consumption is projected to grow by 57%. Fossil fuels cannot meet this demand, as their continued use is causing global warming and they are in any case a finite reserve that will be exhausted before the end of this century. Liquid fuels derived from natural plant material (biofuels), are the most promising alternative energy source for use in the transportation sector. In this regard, an alcohol called butanol is currently receiving considerable interest due to its superior properties compared to ethanol and biodiesel. Butanol has a higher energy content than ethanol, can make use of existing petrol supply and distribution channels, can be blended with petrol at higher concentrations without engine modification, offers better fuel economy and has, unlike ethanol, potential as aviation fuel. Traditionally, butanol is produced by a bacterium called Clostridium acetobutylicum when growing on growth media containing sugars. The fermentation process is known as the Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) process. In the first half of the last century, the ABE process was second in importance/scale only to ethanol production from yeast. However, with the advent of the petrochemical industry, the process became uneconomic and was abandoned in the western world from the 1960s onwards. The process has recently been re-established in China and Brazil, where lower operating costs make a process based on inefficient 20th century technology economic. For adoption in the western world, a more efficient process is required. Its derivation will be reliant on improvements to the bacterial strains employed. However, the rational creation of such strains will require a more detailed understanding of the complex processes within the cell that catalyse and control the formation of fermentation products. Deriving a better understanding of the process is the overall objective of this proposal. For this, a new holistic approach termed systems biology will be used, which involves iterative cycles of mathematical modelling and experimental testing. It is made possible by developments made in an earlier funding round in which crucial gene tools and methodologies were developed that will allow precise changes to be made to selected genes and the consequences assessed.

到2030年，全球能源消耗预计将增长57％。化石燃料无法满足这一需求，因为它们的持续使用正在引起全球变暖，无论如何它们都是有限的储备，在本世纪末之前将精疲力尽。源自天然植物材料（生物燃料）的液体燃料是运输部门使用的最有希望的替代能源。在这方面，与乙醇和生物柴油相比，由于其优越的特性，目前称为丁醇的酒精目前正在获得巨大的兴趣。丁醇具有比乙醇更高的能量含量，可以利用现有的汽油供应和分销渠道，可以在没有发动机修饰的情况下将汽油与汽油混合，提供更好的燃油经济性，并且与乙醇不同，可以作为航空燃料。传统上，丁醇是由一种称为乙梭菌的细菌在含糖的生长培养基上生长时产生的。发酵过程称为丙酮丁醇 - 乙醇（ABE）过程。在上个世纪上半叶，安倍进程的重要性/规模仅次于酵母乙醇的生产。但是，随着石化工业的出现，从1960年代开始，这一过程变得不经济，并在西方世界被抛弃。最近在中国和巴西重新建立了这一过程，那里的运营成本降低基于20世纪技术经济效率低下的过程。为了在西方世界中采用，需要一个更有效的过程。它的推导将依赖于改善所使用的细菌菌株。但是，这种菌株的合理创造将需要对催化和控制发酵产物形成的细胞中复杂过程的复杂过程有更详细的了解。该提案的总体目标是更好地理解该过程。为此，将使用一种新的整体方法，称为系统生物学，其中涉及数学建模和实验测试的迭代循环。在较早的资金回合中做出的发展使它成为可能，在该回合中开发了重要的基因工具和方法，可以对选定的基因进行精确的更改以及评估的后果。