Escherichia coli arcA mutants: metabolic profile characterization of microaerobic cultures using glycerol as a carbon source.

ArcA is a global regulator that switches on the expression of fermentation genes and represses the aerobic pathways when Escherichia coli enters low oxygen growth conditions. The metabolic profile of E. coli CT1062 (DeltaarcA)and CT1061 (arcA2) grown in microaerobiosis with glycerol as carbon source were determined and compared with E. coli K1060, the arcA+ parent strain. Both arcA mutants achieved higher biomass yields than the wild-type strain. The production of acetate, formate, lactate, pyruvate, succinate and ethanol were determined in the supernatants of cultures grown on glycerol under microaerobic conditions for 48 h. The yield of extracellular metabolites on glycerol showed lower acid and higher ethanol values for the mutants. The ethanol/acetate ratio was 0.87 for the parent strain, 2.01 for CT1062, and 12.51 for CT1061. Accordingly, the NADH/NAD+ ratios were 0.18, 0.63, and 0.97, respectively. The extracellular succinate yield followed a different pattern, with yield values of 0.164 for K1060, 0.442 for CT1062 and 0.214 for CT1061. The dissimilarities observed can be attributed to the different effects exerted by the deletion and point mutations in a global regulator.