Clostridium acetobutylicum

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Clostridium acetobutylicum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria
Division: Firmicutes
Class: Clostridia
Order: Clostridiale
Family: Clostridiaceae
Genus: Clostridium
Species: C. acetobutylicum

Clostridium acetobutylicum, ATCC 824, is a commercially valuable bacterium sometimes called the "Weizmann Organism", after Jewish-Russian born Chaim Weizmann, then senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, England, used them in 1916 as a bio-chemical tool to produce at the same time, jointly, acetone, ethanol, and butanol from starch. The method was described since as the ABE process, (Acetone Butanol Ethanol fermentation process), yielding 3 parts of acetone, 6 of butanol and 1 of ethanol, reducing the former difficulties to make cordite, an explosive, from acetone and paving the way also, for instance, to obtain vehicle fuels and synthetic rubber.

Unlike yeast, which can digest sugar only into alcohol and carbon dioxide, C. acetobutylicum and other Clostridia can digest whey, sugar, starch, and perhaps certain types of lignin, yielding butanol, propionic acid, ether, and glycerin.


Contents

[edit] In genetic engineering

James Liao, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Los Angeles developed a method to insert genes from Clostridium acetobutylicum, which are responsible for production of butanol into the bacterium Escherichia coli. [1] [2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Chaim_Weizmann.aspx
  • D.T. Jones , D. R. Woods , Acetone-butanol fermentation revisited. Microbiol Rev. 1986 December; 50(4): 484–524. Full text at PMC: 373084.pages 484 - 524.
  • Ronald M. Atlas, Richard Barta, Microbial Ecology, Fundamentals and Applications, Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co. Inc., Redwood City, CA, 3rd edition, 563 pages.ISBN 0-8053-0653-6
  • Microbial Processes: Promising Technologies for Developing Countries, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, (1979).

See,Internet: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9544&page=R1. Probably, you can see, for immediate results, (consulted May 2011): 27 hits 6 Fuel and Energy 107-123 42 hits 7 Waste Treatment and Utilization 124-141 36 hits 8 Cellulose Conversion 142-157

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

ISSN: 01757598 CODEN: AMBID DOI: 10.1007/s00253-010-2707-z PMID 20535464 Document Type: Short Survey Source Type: Journal

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