In Tennessee, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Cincinnati achieved a breakthrough in understanding the vulnerability of microbes to the butanol they produce during fermentation of plant biomass. The discovery could pave the way for more efficient production of domestic fuels, chemicals and materials.
The team used ORNL’s neutron scattering capabilities and molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the fermentation process producing butanol, an energy-packed alcohol that can be used as a biofuel, solvent or chemical feedstock.
Methods developed so far to biologically produce the alcohol face a major hurdle: butanol is toxic to the very microorganisms that produce it. This toxicity limits the amount of butanol that can be generated during fermentation, presenting a challenge to biobased production.
Scientists focused their analysis on specialized regions within the microbes’ cell membranes called membrane domains that play a critical role in organizing proteins and maintaining cell stability. Using tiny, bubble-like structures called liposomes that mimic cell membranes, researchers found that butanol tends to accumulate unevenly around the membrane, causing smaller domains to merge into larger ones and prompting the thinning of some regions of the membrane, as described in the journal Langmuir. Exposure to butanol ultimately triggered changes in the membrane’s organization associated with cell stress and less-efficient fermentation.
Tags: ORNL, Tennessee, University of Cincinnati
Category: Research
