Alteration of hydrogen metabolism of ldh-deleted Enterobacter aerogenes by overexpression of NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase

The NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase FDH1 gene (fdh1), cloned from Candida boidinii, was expressed in the ldh-deleted mutant of Enterobacter aerogenes IAM1183 strain. The plasmid of pCom10 driven by the PalkB promoter was used to construct the fdh1 expression system and thus introduce a new dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) regeneration pathway from formate in the ldh-deleted mutant. The knockout of NADH-consuming lactate pathway affected the whole cellular metabolism, and the hydrogen yield increased by 11.4% compared with the wild strain. Expression of fdh1 in the ldh-deleted mutant caused lower final cell concentration and final pH after 16 h cultivation, and finally resulted in 86.8% of increase in hydrogen yield per mole consumed glucose. The analysis of cellular metabolites and estimated redox state balance in the fdhl-expressed strain showed that more excess of reducing power was formed by the rewired NADH regeneration pathway, changing the metabolic distribution and promoting the hydrogen production.