Clostridium autoethanogenum is an anaerobic bacterium that produces ethanol from carbon monoxide, in so-called syngas fermentation, being one of the few known microorganisms to do so. It is gram-positive, spore-forming, rod-like, motile, and was first isolated from rabbit feces. Its type strain is strain JA1-1.[1] Its genome has been sequenced [2] and the genes required for utilising carbon monoxide as a sole carbon and energy source have been determined.[3]
This species is the key to the technology developed by Lanzatech to create ethanol from waste carbon monoxide gas of factory emissions.
Clostridium autoethanogenum is an anaerobic bacterium that produces ethanol from carbon monoxide, in so-called syngas fermentation, being one of the few known microorganisms to do so. It is gram-positive, spore-forming, rod-like, motile, and was first isolated from rabbit feces. Its type strain is strain JA1-1. Its genome has been sequenced and the genes required for utilising carbon monoxide as a sole carbon and energy source have been determined.
