Claims
- 1. A method for isolating succinic acid producing bacteria comprising:
- a.) isolating a facultative organism lacking the capacity to catabolize pyruvate;
- b.) increasing the biomass of the organism in an aerobic process;
- c.) subjecting the biomass to glucose-rich medium in an anaerobic environment to enable pyruvate-catabolizing mutants to grow; and
- d.) isolating a mutant characterized in that it produces a mixture of succinic acid, acetic acid and ethanol as fermentation products, which as been derived from a parent which lacked the genes for pyruvate formate lyase and lactate dehydrogenase which belongs to the E. coli Group of Bacteria.
- 2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the facultative organism lacks pyruvate formate lyase and lactate dehydrogenase activity.
- 3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the facultative organism lacking the capacity to catabolize pyruvate is NZN 111.
- 4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the organism is cultured aerobically on Luria broth.
- 5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the biomass is increased to between approximately 10.sup.9 to 10.sup.10 cells per milliliter.
- 6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the glucose-rich medium contains between approximately 1 g/l and 30 g/l of glucose.
- 7. A mutant characterized in that it produces a mixture of succinic acid, acetic acid and ethanol as fermentation products, which as been derived from a parent which lacked the genes for pyruvate formate lyase and lactate dehydrogenase which belongs to the E. coli Group of Bacteria.
- 8. A mutant as described in claim 7 wherein the parent is NZN 111.
- 9. AFP 111, as claimed in claim 7.
- 10. A mutant as described in claim 7 wherein succinic acid is the major fermentation product.
CONTRACTUAL ORIGIN OF THE INVENTION
The United States Government has rights in this invention under Contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38 between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Chicago representing Argonne National Laboratory.
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5573931 |
Guettler et al. |
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