Engineering Microbial Partnerships for Syngas Fermentation
Carbon-rich wastes can be converted to CO-rich syngas via gasification, which can be fermented into valuable chemicals. While ethanol is the primary product of syngas fermentation (commercially implemented), expanding the product spectrum requires either genetic engineering of acetogens or the design of synthetic microbial co-cultures. Our
group pioneered the latter, first demonstrating a co-culture of Clostridium autoethanogenum and Clostridium kluyveri converting syngas into even-chain medium-chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs) and alcohols. To expand this platform beyond even-chain products, we introduced Anaerotignum neopropionicum, enabling the production of odd-chain MCCAs and alcohols, such as valerate and pentanol. More recently, we developed a system combining non-sulfur purple bacteria
with acetogens to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from CO. These studies highlight co-cultures as a powerful strategy to diversify syngas-derived products and advance sustainable bioprocessing.
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