Proteomic analysis of Clostridium acetobutylicum in butanol production from lignocellulosic biomass

Background Plant biomass is an abundant and renewable source of energy rich carbohydrates that can be efficiently converted by microbes into biofuels [1]. Butanol is considered as a second generation biofuel when it is produced from lignocellulosic biomass comprising of agricultural and garden wastes that does not compete with the food supplies [2]. Clostridium acetobutylicum is a gram positive, spore forming, obligately anaerobic bacteria capable of converting different sugars from lignocellulosic biomass to butanol through acetone – butanol – ethanol (ABE) fermentation process [3]. However, the production of butanol from ABE fermentation process is not economically viable and studies have been performed to understand the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass and regulation of butanol production to improve butanol productivity [4]. Successful industrial butanol production process through ABE fermentation requires complete understanding of the C .acetobutylicum. Shotgun proteomics provides a direct approach to study the whole proteome of an organism at molecular level in depth. Therefore, this paper focuses on shotgun proteomic profiling of C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824 from butanol fermentation process, elucidating the molecular functional mechanisms of C.acetobutylicum in butanol production.