Galacturonate metabolism in anaerobic chemostat enrichment cultures

Abstract

Agricultural residues such as sugar beet pulp and citrus peel are rich in pectin, which contains galacturonic acid as a main monomer. Pectin-rich residues are underexploited as feedstocks for production of bulk chemicals or biofuels. The anaerobic, fermentative conversion of D-galacturonate in anaerobic chemostat enrichment cultures provides valuable information toward valorization of these pectinrich feedstocks. Replicate anaerobic chemostat enrichments, with D-galacturonate as the sole limiting carbon source and inoculum from cow rumen content and rotting orange peels, yielded stable microbial communities, which were dominated by a novel Lachnospiraceae species, for which the name "Candidatus Galacturonibacter soehngenii" was proposed. Acetate was the dominant catabolic product, with formate and H₂ as coproducts. The observed molar ratio of acetate and the combined amounts of H₂ and formate deviated significantly from 1, which suggested that some of the hydrogen and CO₂ formed during D-galacturonate fermentation was converted into acetate via the Wood-Ljungdahl acetogenesis pathway. Indeed, metagenomic analysis of the enrichment cultures indicated that the genome of "Candidatus G. soehngenii" encoded enzymes of the adapted Entner-Doudoroff pathway for D-galacturonate metabolism as well as enzymes of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. The simultaneous operation of these pathways may provide a selective advantage under D-galacturonate-limited conditions by enabling a higher specific ATP production rate and lower residual D-galacturonate concentration than would be possible with a strictly fermentative metabolism of this carbon and energy source.