Both adhE and a Separate NADPH-Dependent Alcohol Dehydrogenase Gene, adhA , Are Necessary for High Ethanol Production in Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum

Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum has been engineered to produce ethanol at about 90% of the theoretical maximum yield (2 ethanol molecules per glucose equivalent) and a titer of 70 g/liter. Its ethanol-producing ability has drawn attention to its metabolic pathways, which could potentially be transferred to other organisms of interest. Here, we report that the iron-containing AdhA is important for ethanol production in the high-ethanol strain of T. saccharolyticum (LL1049). A single-gene deletion of adhA in LL1049 reduced ethanol production by ∼50%, whereas multiple gene deletions of all annotated alcohol dehydrogenase genes except adhA and adhE did not affect ethanol production. Deletion of adhA in wild-type T. saccharolyticum reduced NADPH-linked alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity (acetaldehyde-reducing direction) by 93%. IMPORTANCE In this study, we set out to identify the alcohol dehydrogenases necessary for high ethanol production in T. saccharolyticum. Based on previous work, we had assumed that adhE was the primary alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Here, we show that both adhA and adhE are needed for high ethanol yield in the engineered strain LL1049. This is the first report showing adhA is important for ethanol production in a native adhA host, which has important implications for achieving higher ethanol yields in other microorganisms.