Metabolic engineering of the genus Clostridium for butanol production

Abstract

Clostridium is a genus of Gram-positive, rod shape, spore-forming obligate anaerobe. Recently, Clostridium has been attracted as a host for bio-based chemical production, due to its diversity of substrate utilization and the production ability for metabolites which can be used as a building block for chemical production. Especially, butanol produced from Clostridium has been considered as an alternative fuel. As a transportation fuel, butanol has a higher energy density and lower hygroscopicity compared to ethanol, the first generation biofuel. Recently, metabolic engineering of Clostridium has been massively conducted for butanol production. In this study, the metabolic engineering strategy of Clostridium for butanol production has been reviewed with a brief perspective.