Subscriber access provided by Universitaetsbibliothek | Johann Christian Senckenberg
Article
Enhanced methane production from food waste using cysteine to increase biotransformation of L-monosaccharide, VFA and bio-hydrogen Hui Liu, and Yinguang Chen Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b05355 • Publication Date (Web): 21 Feb 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on February 22, 2018
Just Accepted “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. They are posted online prior to technical editing, formatting for publication and author proofing. The American Chemical Society provides “Just Accepted” as a service to the research community to expedite the dissemination of scientific material as soon as possible after acceptance. “Just Accepted” manuscripts appear in full in PDF format accompanied by an HTML abstract. “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been fully peer reviewed, but should not be considered the official version of record. They are citable by the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®). “Just Accepted” is an optional service offered to authors. Therefore, the “Just Accepted” Web site may not include all articles that will be published in the journal. After a manuscript is technically edited and formatted, it will be removed from the “Just Accepted” Web site and published as an ASAP article. Note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the manuscript text and/or graphics which could affect content, and all legal disclaimers and ethical guidelines that apply to the journal pertain. ACS cannot be held responsible for errors or consequences arising from the use of information contained in these “Just Accepted” manuscripts.
Environmental Science & Technology is published by the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036 Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical Society. However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course of their duties.
Page 1 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
1
Enhanced methane production from food waste using cysteine to increase
2
biotransformation of L-monosaccharide, VFA and bio-hydrogen
3
Hui Liu, Yinguang Chen*
4 5
( State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China)
6
* Corresponding author
7
E-mail:
[email protected] 8
Tel.: 86-21-65981263
9
Fax: 86-21-65986313
10
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Environmental Science & Technology
11
Abstract: The enhancement of two-stage anaerobic digestion of polysaccharide enriched food waste by
12
the addition of cysteine, an oxygen scavenger, electron mediator and nitrogen source, to the acidification
13
stage was reported. It was found that in the acidification stage the accumulation of volatile fatty acids
14
(VFA), which mainly consisted of acetate, butyrate and propionate, was increased by 49.3% at cysteine
15
dosage 50 mg/L. Although partial cysteine was biodegraded in the acidification stage, the VFA derived from
16
cysteine was negligible. In the methanogenesis stage, the biotransformations of both VFA and bio-hydrogen
17
to methane were enhanced and the methane yield was improved by 43.9%. The mechanisms study showed
18
that both D-glucose and L-glucose (the model monosaccharides) were detectable in the hydrolysis product,
19
and the addition of cysteine remarkably increased the acidification of L-glucose, especially acetic acid and
20
hydrogen generation due to key enzymes involved in L-glucose metabolism being enhanced. Cysteine also
21
improved the activity of homoacetogens by 34.8% and hydrogenotrophic methanogens by 54%, which
22
might be due to the electron transfer process being accelerated. This study provided an alternative method to
23
improve anaerobic digestion performance and energy recovery from food waste.
24 25
2
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 2 of 21
Page 3 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
26
Introduction
27
Anaerobic digestion is considered as a preferable method for reutilizing organic matters (mainly
28
polysaccharide, protein and lipids) in wastes since it can produce energy (i.e., methane) with simultaneous
29
reduction of wastes.1 Usually, three steps are involved in anaerobic digestion, i.e., hydrolysis, acidification,
30
and methanogenesis. Firstly, organic macromolecule (polysaccharide, protein and lipids) in organic wastes
31
are hydrolyzed to monosaccharide, amino acid and free fatty acids by anaerobic microbes. Then, the
32
hydrolyzed products (such as glucose) are bio-converted to acetic acid and other volatile fatty acids (VFA,
33
such as propionic and butyric acids) by acid-producing bacteria. Finally, methanogens use the generated
34
acetic acid to produce methane and carbon dioxide under favorable anaerobic conditions. As hydrolysis is
35
believed the rate-limiting step of anaerobic digestion, previous studies usually focus on the use of various
36
pretreatment methods, such as alkaline pH and/or thermophilic temperature, to increase the hydrolysis
37
efficiency of wastes for improving methane yield.2-5
38
Monosaccharide (such as glucose) is the main hydrolysis product when polysaccharide-enriched
39
organic wastes are digested.
40
(dextorotatory, right-handed) and L (levorotatory, left-handed)), most publications only discuss or assay the
41
monosaccharide with D-configuration, especially D-glucose, when hydrolysis step is studied, which might
42
be due to the natural configuration of glucose being D-glucose.6,7 In fact, L-monosaccharide has also been
43
reported to be generated during hydrolysis.
44
hydrolysate of corn stalk.8 Also, L-monosaccharides, such as L-glucose, L-frutose and L-xylulose, have been
45
used widely as low calorie sweeteners, bulking agents, and inhibitors of bacterial growth and glucosidases,9-
46
12
47
biodegradation behavior of L-monosaccharide.
48
configuration of monosaccharide and the effect of monosaccharide’s configuration on acidification,
49
especially on the amount and composition of VFA, have rarely been investigated.
Although monosaccharide has two types of configuration (i.e., D
For example, L-monosaccharide was observed in the
and they may release into the environment. Therefore, it is of vital importance to explore the anaerobic Until now, however, the influence of hydrolysis on
50
Acetic acid and hydrogen are also the important intermediate products affecting anaerobic digestion.
51
They are the direct substrates for methane production. Usually, acetic acid is derived from the acidification
52
of monosaccharide. Nevertheless, it can also be formed from biohydrogen and carbon dioxide, which are
53
generated in acidification stage by homoacetogens via Wood-Ljungdahl pathway according to equation 1.13-
54
15
If the biotransformation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide to acetic acid in the acidification step could be 3
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Environmental Science & Technology
Page 4 of 21
55
increased, more acetic acid would be generated, which will provide more substrate for acetotrophic
56
methanogens to produce more methane in the methanogenesis step. It was also reported that in the
57
methanogenesis step other VFA (such as propionic and butyric acids) can be biodegraded to acetic acid with
58
the generation of hydrogen (equations 2 and 3), and the generated hydrogen can be taken up together with
59
CO2, coming from the activity of acetotrophic methanogens, by hydrogenotrophic methanogens to produce
60
methane (equation 4).16-18 Clearly, improving the activities of microbes responsible for bioconversion of
61
other VFA to acetic acid and hydrogen/carbon dioxide to methane will also be in favor of the increase of
62
methane yield. Although several environmental and operational factors, such as trace element, humic acids,
63
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and pH value, have been reported to influence the microbial activity of
64
anaerobic digestion, the strategy for simultaneously increasing the microbial activities of homoacetogens and
65
acetotrophic and hydrogenotrophic methanogens has never been reported.19-24
66
4H 2 + 2CO2 → CH 3 COOH + 2 H 2 O
(1)
67
CH 3 CH 2 COOH + 2 H 2 O → CH 3 COOH + CO 2 + 3H 2
(2)
68
CH 3 CH 2 CH 2 COOH + 2 H 2 O → 2CH 3 COOH + 2 H 2
(3)
69
4 H 2 + CO 2 → CH 4 + 2 H 2 O
(4)
70
Cysteine has been reported to have the properties of stabilizing oxidation-reduction potential, affecting
71
catalytic activity, and making posttranslational modifications of some proteins.25 For example, it can lower
72
the redox potential,26 scavenge oxgen,27 stimulate the reduction of iron (III) oxides by Geobacter
73
sulfurreducens,28 affect biohydrogen production,29 mediate electron transfer between different guilds,28,30
74
and act as nitrogen source supplier.31 Until now, however, the influence of cysteine on the digestion of food
75
waste, which mainly comes from restaurants, hotels, canteens, and companies with a total amount of 1.6
76
gigatonnes annually,32 has seldom been studied. It was observed in our study that the presence of certain
77
amount of cysteine in the anaerobic digestion system could remarkably enhance methane production from
78
food waste. The purpose of this study was therefore to report a new strategy for increasing methane
79
production from food waste via the use of cysteine to improve the bioconversion of monosaccharide with L-
80
configuration and the biotransformation of VFA and bio-hydrogen. As two-stage anaerobic digestion (i.e.,
81
firstly fermenting organic wastes to generate VFA and then the VFA-enriched mixture being used as the
82
substrate for methane production) usually can produce more methane than single-stage,5,33,34 it was applied 4
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 5 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
83
to anaerobically digest food waste in this study. Firstly, the performance of anaerobic digestion of food
84
waste for methane production enhanced by cysteine was reported. Then, the influences of cysteine on the
85
hydrolysis of main organic compound of food waste, the bio-transformations of monosaccharide with
86
different configuration, VFA, and hydrogen in acidification and methanogenesis stages, and the activities of
87
key microbes and enzymes were investigated to explore the possible reasons for cysteine improving methane
88
yield.
89
Materials and methods
90
Analytic methods. TS (total solid) and VS (volatile solid) were analyzed by standard methods.35 The VFA
91
composition was analyzed by gas chromatography (Agilent 7820N) with a flame ionization detector and
92
DB-WAXETR column (30 m×1.0 µm×0.53 mm). The sum of measured acetic, propionic, n-butyric, iso-
93
butyric, n-valeric, and iso-valeric acids was recorded as the concentration of total VFA (mg COD/L) with
94
proper COD conversion (i.e. 1 g acetic acid=1.07 g-COD, 1 g propionic acid=1.51 g-COD, 1 g butyric
95
acid=1.82 g-COD, and 1 g valeric acid=2.04 g-COD).36
96
hydrogen, were determined via a gas chromatograph (Agilent 6890N) equipped with a thermal conductivity
97
detector using nitrogen as a carrier gas.15
98
pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase, formate dehydrogenase, formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase) were
99
assayed as described in our previous publications.15,37 For their determinations, 25 mL of the mixture was
100
taken out of the reactors and then washed and resuspended in 10 mL of 100 mM sodium phosphate buffer
101
(pH 7.4). The suspension was sonicated at 20 kHz and 4°C for 30 min to break down the cells of bacteria
102
and then centrifuged at 10000 rpm and 4°C for 30 min to remove the waste debris. The extracts were kept
103
cold on ice before enzyme activity was assayed. The content of ATP and the L-glucose dehydrogenase
104
(LGDH) activity were measured according to the references.38,39 Other analytical methods are detailed in
105
Supporting Information.
106
Statistical analysis. All assays were conducted in triplicate and the results were expressed as mean ±
107
standard deviation. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the significance of results, and p
0.05), Figure 1B did not show a large difference
200
between VFA composition.
201
The pH value and reaction time were reported to affect not only the biodegradation of refractory
202
organic compounds which are difficult to be biodegraded, but the generation of VFA during acidification.37,46
203
In the presence of cysteine, however, the optimal conditions for VFA generation from food waste have never
204
been studied. As seen in Figure 1C the VFA concentrations at any pH value investigated were increased
205
significantly with time (p0.05), suggesting that the suitable pH for food waste acidification was pH 6 and the
208
acidification time was 8 d. Under the optimal conditions (i.e., cysteine dosage 50 mg/L, pH 6 and time 8d),
209
the VFA concentration reached 18071 mg COD/L, and the top three compositions of VFA were acetic (8738
210
mg COD/L), butyric (7784 mg COD/L), and propionic (1198 mg COD/L) acids, which accounted for 48.4%,
211
43.1% and 6.6% of the total VFA, respectively.
212
concentration of VFA under conditions of pH 6 and time 8 d was only 12104 mg COD/L, which indicated
213
that the addition of cysteine caused a 49.3% enhancement of VFA accumulation in the acidification stage.
Without the supplement of cysteine, however, the
214
The above acidified food waste (AFW) and cysteine enhanced acidified food waste (CE-AFW) were
215
then used respectively as substrate to produce methane in two long-term operated methanogenesis reactors.
216
Figure 2A shows the data of methane production during 60 day’s operation after the yield of methane
217
reached relatively stable. The average yield of methane was 328 mL/g VS in the control reactor, and it was
218
increased to 472 mL/g VS in the cysteine-enhanced acidified food waste (CE-AFW) methanogenesis reactor.
219
The improvement of methane yield was 43.9%. Further analysis of COD balance was conducted (Table S2,
220
Supporting Information), and it can be indicated that in the acidification stage about 35.9% of the influent
221
(food waste) total COD was converted to VFA in the control reactor, while 53.7% of the influent total COD 9
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Environmental Science & Technology
Page 10 of 21
222
was converted to VFA in the cysteine addition reactor. In the methanogenesis stage, 43.1% (control) and
223
62.6% (cysteine) of the influent (i.e., acidification liquid) total COD were converted to methane,
224
respectively. Since the VFA production from food waste in acidification stage and VFA conversion to
225
methane in methanogenesis step were both enhanced by cysteine addition, significant enhancement of
226
methane yield was therefore observed.
227
The methane production observed in this study was greater than that reported in the literature when
228
food waste was digested in two-stage at mesophilic temperature (Table S3, Supporting Information).47-52
229
Further measurement of ATP, which had been used to assess the general physiological activity of anaerobic
230
cells as the increase of methane production was observed to be in correspondence with that of ATP,38,53
231
showed that the average ATP concentration was 1.45 times higher (23.3 µg/L) in the CE-ATW reactor than
232
that of the control (16.1 µg/L). As the trends between Fig 2A and Fig 2B were very similar over time, it
233
seems that the use of cysteine-enhanced acidified food waste as the substrate for methane production
234
improved the activity of methanogens. Cysteine can be served as a nitrogen source when the content of
235
nitrogen is not enough for microbial activity. Usually the required nitrogen/carbon ratio (TN/BOD) for
236
microbes is 5/(100-200), i.e., 1/20-40. In this study the ratios of TN/BOD in the food waste fermentation
237
tests was 1/9.34, which were much greater than 1/(20-40). Thus, the production of methane enhanced by
238
cysteine was not due to its service as nitrogen source. In the coming text the possible reasons for cysteine
239
improving two-stage anaerobic digestion were explored. 30
B
AFW (Control)
CE-AFW
CE-AFW
25
500
ATP (ug/L)
Methane (ml/gVS)
A
AFW (Control)
600
400 300
20
15 200 100
10
0
10
20
30 40 Time (d)
50
60
0
10
20
30 40 Time (d)
50
60
240 241
Figure 2. Performance of methane production (A) and general physiological activity of anaerobic cells
242
measured by ATP (B) in the long-term methanogenesis experiments. Error bars represent standard deviations 10
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 11 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
243
of triplicate tests.
244
Effects of cysteine on hydrolysis of main organic compound of food waste. Polysaccharide is the top one
245
organic compound in food waste, which can be hydrolyzed to monosaccharide in the hydrolysis stage.
246
When glucose was considered as the model monosaccharide, it was observed in our study that not only D-
247
glucose, the well know natural configuration of glucose, but also L-glucose was generated in the food waste
248
during hydrolysis tests. The final D-glucose was respectively 943±24 and 996±32 mg COD/L in the absence
249
(control) and presence of cysteine, and the corresponding L-glucose was 311±24 and 335±23 mg COD/L.
250
The statistic analysis indicated that the addition of cysteine did not significantly affect the concentration of
251
both D-glucose and L-glucose (p>0.05), indicating that the reason for cysteine improving VFA generation
252
was not due to its influences on the hydrolysis of main organic compound of food waste.
253
Protein is the second organic compound in food waste, but its content was much lower than
254
polysaccharide (11.73 versus 81.96 g/L). In the hydrolysis stage protein is bio-converted to amino acids.
255
The final total amino acids concentration in the hydrolysis liquid was 31.4 mg COD/L in the control test, and
256
it was 58.9 mg COD/L after the addition of cysteine. Compared with D-glucose and L-glucose, the
257
concentration of amino acids was much lower. Thus, this paper focused on the bio-transformation of
258
polysaccharide and the influence of cysteine addition on protein hydrolysis was not considered.
259
Effects of cysteine on bio-transformations of hydrolyzed product and hydrogen in acidification stage.
260
The tests of cysteine affecting acidification of D-glucose showed that no matter whether cysteine was added
261
or not, all D-glucose was completely consumed (Table 1). The measurement of acidification products
262
revealed that acetic, propionic and butyric acids were detectable in the D-glucose acidification test, and
263
acetic and butyric acids were the top two VFA. The total VFA concentration was 812.4 and 827.8 mg
264
COD/L in the control and cysteine added tests, respectively. It can be calculated from Table 1 that acetic and
265
propionic acids accounted respectively for 67.3% and 21.6% of total VFA in the control test, and 68.3% and
266
20.2% in the cysteine one. It seems that cysteine had no obvious effect on acidification of D-glucose, which
267
might be due to the fact that D-glucose is an easily biodegradable substrate. Nevertheless, in the L-glucose
268
acidification test, the acidification efficiency of L-glucose was only 19.2% in the absence of cysteine, i.e., L-
269
glucose was slightly decreased from 323 to 261 mg COD/L (Table 1). With the addition of cysteine,
270
however, the final L-glucose concentration was declined to 12 mg COD/L, and the acidification efficiency
271
reached 96.3%. By analyzing the cysteine content after acidification it was observed that there was still 20.2 11
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Environmental Science & Technology
Page 12 of 21
272
mg/L of cysteine, indicating that the maximal biodegradation of cysteine in the current acidification system
273
was 29.8 mg/L. Even when all biodegraded cysteine was converted to acetic acid, the theoretic yield of
274
acetic acid was only 15.8 mg COD/L, which was negligible. The VFA concentrations were respectively 51.3
275
and 280.6 mg COD/L in the absence and presence of cysteine tests. From Table 1 it can also be seen that
276
there were only acetic and propionic acids in the acidification liquid of L-glucose. The percentage of acetic
277
and propionic acids was respectively 51.8% and 48.2% in the control test, but it was 60.1% and 39.9% in the
278
cysteine addition test. The addition of cysteine to L-glucose acidification reactor increased the ratio of
279
acetic/propionate from 1.08 to 1.51. Apparently, the acidification product of L-glucose was different with
280
that of D-glucose. Also, it can be concluded that cysteine enhanced not only the acidification of L-glucose,
281
but the percentage of acetic acid.
282
Table 1.
283
acidification tests. a
The influences of cysteine on the concentrations of D-glucose, L-glucose and VFA in the
Concentration of substrate Concentration of VFA in the final acidification liquid (D-glucose or L-glucose) Initial
284 285 286 287 288
b
Final
Acetic
Propionic
Butyric
c
Total VFA
D-glucose
Control
970±12
0
546.8±38.8
90.0±9.2
175.6±13.2
812.4±42.7
reactor
Cysteine
970±12
0
565.5±34.7
94.8±8.3
167.5±10.8
827.8±50.4
L-glucose
Control
323±9
261±11
26.6±3.5
24.7±3.5
0
51.3±6.3
reactor
Cysteine
323±9
12±2
168.6± 13.4
112.0± 10.3
0
280.6±20.9
a
The acidification time for L-glucose was 4 d, but it was 2 d for D-glucose as all D-glucose was consumed on day 2 in
acidification tests. The unit is mg COD/L. Apart from acetic, propionic, and butyric acids, there was no other VFA detectable in the final acidification liquid.
b
The initial concentrations of D-glucose and L-glucose in the acidification tests were decided
according to the average data of their final concentrations in the hydrolysis tests.
c
The sum of n-butyric and iso-butyric acids.
The metabolism of anaerobic biotransformation of L-glucose to acetic and propionic acids has never Shimizu et al.39 studied the anaerobic degradation of L-glucose by
289
been reported in the literature.
290
Paracoccus species to pyruvic acid and proposed that L-glucose was firstly bio-transformed to L-glucono-
291
1,5-lactone by LGDH (L-glucose dehydrogenase), which was then to L-gluconoate, L-5-ketogluconoate, D-
292
idonate, D-2-keto-3-deoxygalactonate (KDGal), D-2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate (KDPGal), and
293
finally pyruvic acid.
294
generated in the acidification process in the presence of cysteine, and the key enzyme (L-glucose
295
dehydrogenase) was enhanced (Figure 3A). It seems that the metabolic pathway for the bio-conversion of L-
In the current study the chemical analysis indicated that there was pyruvic acid
12
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 13 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
296
glucose to pyruvic acid reported in the literature was also present in our acidification system. On the other
297
hand, there were large amounts of acetic and propionic acids in the acidification products (Table 1). And the
298
analysis of acetate kinase and CoA transferase showed that both enzymes were increased by cysteine (Figure
299
3A). Moreover, both hydrogen and carbon dioxide were produced in the process of L-glucose acidification,
300
and pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase was increased by cysteine (Figure 3A). In addition, the produced
301
hydrogen and carbon dioxide were proved to be bio-converted to acetic acid via the participation of two key
302
enzymes (formate dehydrogenase and formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase) (Figures 3A and 3B). According to
303
these observations, the metabolic pathway for acetic and propionic acids production from L-glucose in the
304
presence of cysteine is proposed in Figure 4.
1200
45 Hydrogen (mL) or acetic acid (mgCOD/L)
A
1100
% of control
1000 900 200 150 100 50 0
LGDH
AK
CoAT
POR
FDH
FTHFS
Control
40
B
Cysteine
35
30
25
20
305 306
Figure 3. The influences of cysteine on activities of main enzymes involved in L-glucose acidification (A)
307
and hydrogen consumption and acetic acid production by homoacetogens (B). In the acidification test the
308
activities of LGDH, AK, CoAT, POR, FDH, and FTHFS were 0.0035±0.0011 (µM/min/mg-protein),
309
1.36±0.15 (U/mg-prote), 1.06±0.15 (U/mg-prote), 1.01±0.10 (U/mg-prote), 0.008±0.001 (U/mg-prote), and
310
4.5±0.3 (U/mg-prote), respectively, in the control reactor. Error bars represent standard deviations of
311
triplicate tests.
Hydrogen consumption
Acetic acid generation
312
As shown in Figure 4 pyruvic acid, an important metabolic intermediate, plays a vital role in
313
acidification of L-glucose. Since the biotransformation of L-glucose to L-glucono-1,5-lactone, catalyzed by
314
L-glucose dehydrogenase (LGDH), was reported to be the rate-controlled step when L-glucose was
315
metabolized to pyruvic acid,39 the improvement of LGDH would cause the increase of pyruvic acid, which
316
could finally enhance the production of acetic and propionic acids. Figure 3A showed that the enzyme
317
activity of L-glucose dehydrogenase was 10.9 folds of the control after L-cysteine addition, which was in
318
correspondence with the increased L-glucose degradation. Thus, more pyruvic acid could be generated, and
319
greater acetic and propionic acids would be produced, which was a key mechanism of cysteine in this study. 13
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Environmental Science & Technology
Page 14 of 21
320
In addition, it is well known that the contact between enzymes and substrates is the prerequisite for
321
achieving high efficient biological reactions. As cysteine was reported to promote the combination of
322
enzyme and substrate,54 its addition to L-glucose acidification system therefore caused the improvement of
323
L-glucose acidification. Although cysteine was reported to scavenge oxygen from reaction system,27 but all
324
current experiments were sparged with nitrogen gas for 5 min, and the influence of sparging time on
325
acidification was insignificant (p>0.05) (Table S4, Supporting Information), which suggested that the
326
saprging time reported in this study was enough to removal oxygen from the reactors, and cysteine did not
327
act as an oxygen scavenging in this study. It is well known that cysteine can be served as a nitrogen source
328
when the content of nitrogen is not enough for microbial activity, and the required nitrogen/carbon ratio
329
(TN/BOD) for microbes is usually in the range of 5/200 -5/100, i.e., 1/40 -1/20. In this study, however, the
330
ratios of TN/BOD in the carbohydrate addition tests were 1/(2.61-6.48), which were much greater than
331
1/(20-40). Thus, in the current study the production of methane enhanced by cysteine was not due to its
332
service as a nitrogen source. L-glucose
LGDH
L-glucono-1,5-lactone
L-gluconoate
L-5-ketogluconoate NADPH
NAD+ NADH
H2O
NAD+ NADH
LgnH
LgnG
LgnI
NADP+
ADP ATP
LgnE
GAP
LgnG
KDPGal
LgnF
KDGal
D-idonate
PTA
Pyruvic acid ATP ADP
Acetyl-CoA
Acetyl phosphate
Acetic acid AK
2NAD
Pi
2NADH
CoA
Oxaloacetic acid NADH 2FdH NAD+
2Fd
CO2
Malic acid POR
Fumaric acid FADH2
FDH & FTHFS
Hydrogen
FAD Succinic acid Succinyl-CoA
ADP ATP Methymalonyl-CoA
Propionyl-CoA
Propionic acid
CoA transferase
333 334
Figure 4. The proposed metabolic pathway for acetic and propionic acids produced from L-glucose in the
335
presence of cysteine. The key enzymes assayed in this study are labeled in red words. D-2-keto-3-
336
deoxygalactonate (KDGal), D-2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate (KDPGal), D-glyceraldehyde-3-
337
phosphate (GAP), L-glucose dehydrogenase (LGDH), acetate kinase (AK), pyruvate-ferredoxin
338
oxidoreductase (POR), formate dehydrogenase (FDH), and formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (FTHFS).
339
The generation of acetic acid and propionic acid is directly affected by the activities of AK of acetogen
14
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 15 of 21
Environmental Science & Technology
340
and CoAT of propionibacteria, respectively (Figure 4). Compared with the control, the data in Figure 3A
341
revealed that the activities of AK and CoAT were all significantly increased by cysteine addition (p