Specialized activities and expression differences for Clostridium thermocellum biofilm and planktonic cells

Alexandru Dumitrache, Dawn M. Klingeman, Jace Natzke, Miguel Rodriguez, Richard J. Giannone, Robert L. Hettich, Brian H. Davison, Steven D. Brown

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Clostridium (Ruminiclostridium) thermocellum is a model organism for its ability to deconstruct plant biomass and convert the cellulose into ethanol. The bacterium forms biofilms adherent to lignocellulosic feedstocks in a continuous cell-monolayer in order to efficiently break down and uptake cellulose hydrolysates. We developed a novel bioreactor design to generate separate sessile and planktonic cell populations for omics studies. Sessile cells had significantly greater expression of genes involved in catabolism of carbohydrates by glycolysis and pyruvate fermentation, ATP generation by proton gradient, the anabolism of proteins and lipids and cellular functions critical for cell division consistent with substrate replete conditions. Planktonic cells had notably higher gene expression for flagellar motility and chemotaxis, cellulosomal cellulases and anchoring scaffoldins, and a range of stress induced homeostasis mechanisms such as oxidative stress protection by antioxidants and flavoprotein co-factors, methionine repair, Fe-S cluster assembly and repair in redox proteins, cell growth control through tRNA thiolation, recovery of damaged DNA by nucleotide excision repair and removal of terminal proteins by proteases. This study demonstrates that microbial attachment to cellulose substrate produces widespread gene expression changes for critical functions of this organism and provides physiological insights for two cells populations relevant for engineering of industrially-ready phenotypes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number43583
JournalScientific Reports
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 27 2017

Funding

This research was funded by the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) which is a US Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, Oak Ridge, TN, USA, for the DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.

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