Abstract
Dark fermentative biohydrogen (H2) production could become a key technology for providing renewable energy. Until now, the H2 yield is restricted to 4 moles of H2 per mole of glucose, referred to as the “Thauer limit”. Here we show, that precision design of artificial microbial consortia increased the H2 yield to 5.6 mol mol−1 glucose, 40% higher than the Thauer limit. In addition, the volumetric H2 production rates of our defined artificial consortia are superior compared to any mono-, co- or multi-culture system reported to date. We hope this study to be a major leap forward in the engineering of artificial microbial consortia through precision design and provide a breakthrough in energy science, biotechnology and ecology. Constructing artificial consortia with this drawing-board approach could in future increase volumetric production rates and yields of other bioprocesses. Our artificial consortia engineering blueprint might pave the way for the development of a H2 production bioindustry.
Highlights
Dark fermentative biohydrogen (H2) production could become a key technology for providing renewable energy
H2 production was initiated earlier in the consortium compared to both mono-culture cultivations on each of the substrates (Supplementary Table 1). These findings clearly indicate that the engineered artificial microbial consortium with an inoculum ratio of 1:10,000 (E. aerogenes : C. acetobutylicum) reached higher H2 evolution rates (HERs)
H2 formation is not the prime aim of microbes, but the microorganism aims on optimizing the energy yield
Summary
Dark fermentative biohydrogen (H2) production could become a key technology for providing renewable energy. Synthetic or artificial microbial consortia are regarded as part of the solution to debottleneck the inherent physiological limitations of wild-type or metabolically engineered mono-culture and undefined consortia bioprocesses, such as enabling the breakdown of complex carbon sources[15], efficient substrate utilization[16], reducing byproduct inhibition through operational stability[17] and high productivities[18]. This can be achieved through selection, design and assembly of microorganisms with specific metabolic (e.g., cellulose utilisers) or ecological (e.g., biofilm forming) functions. Control of microbial community composition, media compounds and their concentration through precision design of an artificial microbial consortium were not yet the focus of any study
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