Clostridium is a genus of anaerobic, Gram-positive bacteria. Species of Clostridium inhabit soils and the intestinal tract of animals, including humans. This genus includes several significant human pathogens, including the causative agents of botulism and tetanus. It also formerly included an important cause of diarrhea, Clostridioides difficile, which was reclassified into the Clostridioides genus in 2016.
Biological carbon fixation or сarbon assimilation is the process by which inorganic carbon is converted to organic compounds by living organisms. The compounds are then used to store energy and as structure for other biomolecules. Carbon is primarily fixed through photosynthesis, but some organisms use a process called chemosynthesis in the absence of sunlight.
Clostridium acetobutylicum, ATCC 824, is a commercially valuable bacterium sometimes called the "Weizmann Organism", after Jewish Russian-born biochemist Chaim Weizmann. A senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, England, he used them in 1916 as a bio-chemical tool to produce at the same time, jointly, acetone, ethanol, and n-butanol from starch. The method has been described since as the ABE process,, yielding 3 parts of acetone, 6 of n-butanol, and 1 of ethanol. Acetone was used in the important wartime task of casting cordite. The alcohols were used to produce vehicle fuels and synthetic rubber.
Acetogenesis is a process through which acetate is produced either by the reduction of CO2 or by the reduction of organic acids, rather than by the oxidative breakdown of carbohydrates or ethanol, as with acetic acid bacteria.
In biochemistry, mixed acid fermentation is the metabolic process by which a six-carbon sugar is converted into a complex and variable mixture of acids. It is an anaerobic (non-oxygen-requiring) fermentation reaction that is common in bacteria. It is characteristic for members of the Enterobacteriaceae, a large family of Gram-negative bacteria that includes E. coli.
In biology, syntrophy, synthrophy, or cross-feeding is the phenomenon of one species feeding on the metabolic products of another species to cope up with the energy limitations by electron transfer. In this type of biological interaction, metabolite transfer happens between two or more metabolically diverse microbial species that live in close proximity to each other. The growth of one partner depends on the nutrients, growth factors, or substrates provided by the other partner. Thus, syntrophism can be considered as an obligatory interdependency and a mutualistic metabolism between two different bacterial species.
Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. It is more similar to gasoline than it is to ethanol. A C4-hydrocarbon, butanol is a drop-in fuel and thus works in vehicles designed for use with gasoline without modification. Both n-butanol and isobutanol have been studied as possible fuels. Both can be produced from biomass (as "biobutanol" ) as well as from fossil fuels (as "petrobutanol"). The chemical properties depend on the isomer (n-butanol or isobutanol), not on the production method.
Zymomonas mobilis is a Gram negative, facultative anaerobic, non-sporulating, polarly-flagellated, rod-shaped bacterium. It is the only species found in the genus Zymomonas. It has notable bioethanol-producing capabilities, which surpass yeast in some aspects. It was originally isolated from alcoholic beverages like the African palm wine, the Mexican pulque, and also as a contaminant of cider and beer in European countries.
Pseudomonas stutzeri is a Gram-negative soil bacterium that is motile, has a single polar flagellum, and is classified as bacillus, or rod-shaped. While this bacterium was first isolated from human spinal fluid, it has since been found in many different environments due to its various characteristics and metabolic capabilities. P. stutzeri is an opportunistic pathogen in clinical settings, although infections are rare. Based on 16S rRNA analysis, this bacterium has been placed in the P. stutzeri group, to which it lends its name.
Syngas fermentation, also known as synthesis gas fermentation, is a microbial process. In this process, a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, known as syngas, is used as carbon and energy sources, and then converted into fuel and chemicals by microorganisms.
Thermotoga maritima is a hyperthermophilic, anaerobic organism that is a member of the order Thermotogales. T. maritima is well known for its ability to produce hydrogen (clean energy) and it is the only fermentative bacterium that has been shown to produce Hydrogen more than the Thauer limit (>4 mol H2 /mol glucose). It employs [FeFe]-hydrogenases to produce hydrogen gas (H2) by fermenting many different types of carbohydrates.
Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is a gram-negative purple nonsulfur bacteria. The cells are rod-shaped, and range in size from 0.6 to 0.9 μm wide and 0.9 to 2.0 μm long, and have a polar flagella. These cells reproduce asexually by binary fission. This bacterium can grow anaerobically when light is present, or aerobically (chemoheterotrophic) under dark conditions. It contains the photosynthetic pigments bacteriochlorophyll a and of carotenoids.
Clostridium cellulovorans is an anaerobic, mesophilic, spore-forming cellulolytic bacterium. Its cells are gram-positive and are non-motile rods which form oblong spores. The type strain is 743B. Its role as an object of study is based on the latter notion.
Thermoclostridium stercorarium is a cellulolytic thermophilic bacterium. It is anaerobic, spore-forming and saccharoclastic, with cells being rod-shaped and 0.7 to 0.8 by 2.7 to 7.7 µm in size. Its genome has been sequenced.
Clostridium saccharobutylicum is an indole and notably acetone, butanol and ethanol-producing bacterium, with type strain DSM 13864T. Its genome has been sequenced.
Thermosinus carboxydivorans is an anaerobic, thermophilic, Gram-negative, carbon-monoxide-oxidizing, hydrogenogenic bacterium, the type species of its genus. It is facultatively carboxydotrophic, curved, motile, rod-shaped, with a length of 2.6–3 μm, a width of about 0.5 μm and lateral flagellation. Its type strain is Nor1T.
Rhodobacter capsulatus is a species of purple bacteria, a group of bacteria that can obtain energy through photosynthesis. Its name is derived from the Latin adjective "capsulatus", itself derived Latin noun "capsula", and the associated Latin suffix for masculine nouns, "-atus".
Pelobacter acetylenicus is a strictly anaerobic Gram-negative rod-shaped non-sporeforming bacterium of the genus Pelobacter. It was isolated from marine and freshwater sediments and can use acetylene (ethyne) as sole source of carbon and energy.
Clostridium drakei is a strictly anaerobic bacterium from the genus Clostridium which has been isolated from a coal mine pond in Germany.
Clostridium vulturis is a gram-positive, rod-shaped, spore-forming, anaerobic bacterium, originally found in the intestine of a cinereous vulture in Korea. Part of the Clostridium genus, C. vulturis is closely related to Clostridium subterminale, Clostridium thiosulfatireducens, Clostridium sulfidigenes, and Clostridium amazonense.
