Among the large variety of micro-organisms capable of fermentative hydrogen production, strict anaerobes such as members of the genus Clostridium are the most widely studied. They can produce hydrogen by a reversible reduction of protons accumulated during fermentation to dihydrogen, a reaction which is catalysed by hydrogenases. Sequenced genomes provide completely new insights into the diversity of clostridial hydrogenases. Building on previous reports, we found that [FeFe] hydrogenases are not a homogeneous group of enzymes, but exist in multiple forms with different modular structures and are especially abundant in members of the genus Clostridium. This unusual diversity seems to support the central role of hydrogenases in cell metabolism. In particular, the presence of multiple putative operons encoding multisubunit [FeFe] hydrogenases highlights the fact that hydrogen metabolism is very complex in this genus. In contrast with [FeFe] hydrogenases, their [NiFe] hydrogenase counterparts, widely represented in other bacteria and archaea, are found in only a few clostridial species. Surprisingly, a heteromultimeric Ech hydrogenase, known to be an energy-converting [NiFe] hydrogenase and previously described only in methanogenic archaea and some sulfur-reducing bacteria, was found to be encoded by the genomes of four cellulolytic strains: Clostridum cellulolyticum, Clostridum papyrosolvens, Clostridum thermocellum and Clostridum phytofermentans.
IntroductionMolecular hydrogen is a key intermediate in the metabolic interactions of a wide range of micro-organisms. The main routes for biohydrogen production are photoproduction and dark fermentation with the latter providing higher rates of gas evolution without external energy requirements and the possibility of converting a wide range of biomassbased substrates into hydrogen. Among a large variety of micro-organisms capable of fermentative hydrogen production, strict anaerobes such as members of the genus Clostridium are the most widely studied (Levin et al., 2004). Clostridia are the dominant micro-organisms in mixed microaerophilic communities capable of hydrogen production from biomass waste treatment. They can produce hydrogen by butyric and mixed acid fermentations at optimal pH values ranging from 4.5 to 5.5 (Fang & Liu, 2002). While fermentative conditions, such as substrate type, pH, hydraulic and solid retention time, H 2 partial pressure and the concentration of acids produced, have been extensively studied and optimized (Li & Fang, 2007;Van Ginkel et al., 2005;Khanal et al., 2004), relatively little is known about the different forms of hydrogenases present in clostridia.Three classes of enzymes are capable of hydrogen production: nitrogenases (Masukawa et al., 2002), alkaline phosphatases (Yang & Metcalf, 2004) and hydrogenases (Heinekey, 2009;Meyer, 2007;Vignais & Colbeau, 2004;Vignais et al., 2001). However, owing to their highly reactive and complex metallocenters, hydrogenases are regarded as the most efficient with turnover rates 1000 times hig...