Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052

Clostridium beijerinckii species are ubiquitous in nature and routinely isolated from soil samples. C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 is a saccharolytic, strictly anaerobic, mesophyllic, motile, rod-shaped bacteria with oval, sub-terminal spores. It exhibits peritrichous flagella. During fermentation, it produces a number of products including acetate, butyrate, lactate, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide, acetone, butanol, ethanol, acetoin and acetyl methyl carbonil. It is this capacity for solvent production (especially butanol, acetone, and isopropanol) that makes it biotechnologically interesting. It grows well and is easy to handle in simple, inexpensive media that is realistic for industrial use. The morphology of the cell changes over the growth cycle of the organism; at early exponential phase, the cells are long, filamentous and very motile. As the culture approaches the solventogenic stage, which corresponds with the stationary phase, cells shorten, become plumper and exhibit a lower level of motility (modified from http://genome.jgi-psf.org/finished_microbes/clobe/clobe.home.html). (EBI Integr8)