BBSRC iCase - High-throughput genetic analysis of a butanol-producing Clostridia

Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum is a commercially important bacterial species, used for the production of the industrial solvent n-butanol. Our understanding of this species has been hampered by a lack of Clostridial genetic tools. We have developed an efficient mariner transposon delivery system which we used to construct comprehensive transposon libraries in the human pathogen C. difficile (Dembek et al, 2016). A recent BBSRC Impact Acceleration Award allowed a proof-of-principle study that demonstrated the feasibility of using this system in C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum. The aim of this project is to gain a deeper understanding of the metabolic pathways required for sporulation and growth on a variety of relevant feedstocks. This will enable rational metabolic engineering to improve growth and solvent production characteristics whilst reducing costs.