Flux Analysis of the Metabolism of Clostridium cellulolyticum Grown in Cellulose-Fed Continuous Culture on a Chemically Defined Medium under Ammonium-Limited Conditions

An investigation of cellulose degradation by the nonruminal, cellulolytic, mesophilic bacterium Clostridium cellulolyticum was performed in cellulose-fed chemostat cultures with ammonium as the growth-limiting nutrient. At any dilution rate (D), acetate was always the main product of the catabolism, with a yield of product from substrate ranging between 37.7 and 51.5 g per mol of hexose equivalent fermented and an acetate/ethanol ratio always higher than 1. As D rose, the acetyl coenzyme A was rerouted in favor of ethanol pathways, and ethanol production could represent up to 17.7% of the carbon consumed. Lactate was significantly produced, but with increasing D, the specific lactate production rate declined, as did the specific rate of production of extracellular pyruvate. The proportion of the original carbon directed towards phosphoglucomutase remained constant, and the carbon surplus was balanced mainly by exopolysaccharide and glycogen biosyntheses at high D values, while cellodextrin excretion occurred mainly at lower ones. With increasing D, the specific rate of carbon flowing down catabolites increased as well, but when expressed as a percentage of carbon it declined, while the percentage of carbon directed through biosynthesis pathways was enhanced. The maximum growth and energetic yields were lower than those obtained in cellulose-limited chemostats and were related to an uncoupling between catabolism and anabolism leading to an excess of energy. Compared to growth on cellobiose in ammonium-limited chemostats (E. Guedon, M. Desvaux, and H. Petitdemange, J. Bacteriol. 182:2010–2017, 2000), (i) a specific consumption rate of carbon of as high as 26.72 mmol of hexose equivalent g of cells⁻¹ h⁻¹ could not be reached and (ii) the proportions of carbon directed towards cellodextrin, glycogen, and exopolysaccharide pathways were not as high as first determined on cellobiose. While the use of cellobiose allows highlighting of metabolic limitation and regulation of C. cellulolyticum under ammonium-limited conditions, some of these events should then rather be interpreted as distortions of the metabolism. Growth of cellulolytic bacteria on easily available carbon and nitrogen sources represents conditions far different from those of the natural lignocellulosic compounds.     

Exoproteome Profiles of Clostridium cellulovorans Grown on Various Carbon Sources

The cellulosome is a complex of cellulosomal proteins bound to scaffolding proteins. This complex is considered the most efficient system for cellulose degradation. Clostridium cellulovorans, which is known to produce cellulosomes, changes the composition of its cellulosomes depending on the growth substrates. However, studies have investigated only cellulosomal proteins; profile changes in noncellulosomal proteins have rarely been examined. In this study, we performed a quantitative proteome analysis of the whole exoproteome of C. cellulovorans, including cellulosomal and noncellulosomal proteins, to illustrate how various substrates are efficiently degraded. C. cellulovorans was cultured with cellobiose, xylan, pectin, or phosphoric acid-swollen cellulose (PASC) as the sole carbon source. PASC was used as a cellulose substrate for more accurate quantitative analysis. Using an isobaric tag method and a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer equipped with a long monolithic silica capillary column, 639 proteins were identified and quantified in all 4 samples. Among these, 79 proteins were involved in saccharification, including 35 cellulosomal and 44 noncellulosomal proteins. We compared protein abundance by spectral count and found that cellulosomal proteins were more abundant than noncellulosomal proteins. Next, we focused on the fold change of the proteins depending on the growth substrates. Drastic changes were observed mainly among the noncellulosomal proteins. These results indicate that cellulosomal proteins were primarily produced to efficiently degrade any substrate and that noncellulosomal proteins were specifically produced to optimize the degradation of a particular substrate. This study highlights the importance of noncellulosomal proteins as well as cellulosomes for the efficient degradation of various substrates.     

A Study of Iron Acquisition Mechanisms of Legionella pneumophila Grown in Chemostat Culture

We recently demonstrated that the virulence of a clinical isolate of Legionella pneumophila is significantly attenuated when cultured in an iron-limited environment. In this study the influence of iron limitation on the expression of enzyme activities and iron-transport mechanisms was investigated. Expression of the important pathogenicity factor, the zinc metalloprotease, was reduced fivefold in response to iron limitation. Ferric citrate reductase activity was demonstrated in both iron-limited and replete cell fractions. Activity was located principally in the cytoplasm and periplasm, and was not enhanced by iron restriction. Optimum activity was observed with NADPH as reductant. Siderophores were not elaborated under these culture conditions. Iron-loaded transferrin enhanced the growth of steady-state, iron-limited cultures, demonstrating that transferrin represents a potentially important iron source for L. pneumophila in vivo. Although cell surface transferrin receptors were not detected, in vitro experiments demonstrated digestion of transferrin by the zinc metalloprotease activity of culture supernatants. Received: 3 July 1996 / Accepted: 3 October 1996     

Modulation of Carbon and Electron Flow in Clostridium acetobutylicum by Iron Limitation and Methyl Viologen Addition

The metabolic flexibility of Clostridium acetobutylicum during growth on glucose with methyl viologen addition (1 mM) and/or iron limitation was examined in batch cultures at pH 5.5. The physiological effects of iron limitation and methyl viologen addition are additive, suggesting that they have different and complementary sites of action.     

Acetone and Butanol Production by Clostridium acetobutylicum in a Synthetic Medium

The effect of the component concentrations of a synthetic medium on acetone and butanol fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 was investigated. Cell growth was dependent on the presence of Mg, Fe, and K in the medium. Mg and Mn had deleterious effects when in excess. Ammonium acetate in excess caused acid fermentation. The metabolism was composed of two phases: an acid phase and a solvent one. Low concentrations of glucose allowed the first phase only. The theoretical ratio of the conversion of glucose to solvents, which was 28 to 33%, was obtained with the following medium: MgSO₄, 50 to 200 mg/liter; MnSO₄, 0 to 20 mg/liter; KCl, 0.015 to 8 g/liter (an equivalent concentration of K⁺ was supplied in the form of KH₂PO₄ and K₂HPO₄); FeSO₄, 1 to 50 mg/liter; ammonium acetate, 1.1 to 2.2 g/liter; para-aminobenzoic acid, 1 mg/liter; biotin, 0.01 mg/liter; glucose, 20 to 60 g/liter.     

A rhamnogalacturonan lyase in the Clostridium cellulolyticum cellulosome

Clostridium cellulolyticum secretes large multienzymatic complexes with plant cell wall-degrading activities named cellulosomes. Most of the genes encoding cellulosomal components are located in a large gene cluster: cipC-cel48F-cel8C-cel9G-cel9E-orfX-cel9H-cel9J-man5K-cel9M. Downstream of the cel9M gene, a new open reading frame was discovered and named rgl11Y. Amino acid sequence analysis indicates that this gene encodes a multidomain pectinase, Rgl11Y, containing an N-terminal signal sequence, a catalytic domain belonging to family 11 of the polysaccharide lyases, and a C-terminal dockerin domain. The present report describes the biochemical characterization of a recombinant form of Rgl11Y. Rgl11Y cleaves the alpha-L-Rhap-(1-->4)-alpha-D-GalpA glycosidic bond in the backbone of rhamnogalacturonan I (RGI) via a beta-elimination mechanism. Its specific activity on potato pectic galactan and rhamnogalacturonan was found to be 28 and 3.6 IU/mg, respectively, indicating that Rgl11Y requires galactan decoration of the RGI backbone. The optimal pH of Rgl11Y is 8.5 and calcium is required for its activity. Rgl11Y was shown to be incorporated in the C. cellulolyticum cellulosome through a typical cohesin-dockerin interaction. Rgl11Y from C. cellulolyticum is the first cellulosomal rhamnogalacturonase characterized.     

Carbon flux distribution and kinetics of cellulose fermentation in steady-state continuous cultures of Clostridium cellulolyticum on a chemically defined medium

The metabolic characteristics of Clostridium cellulolyticum, a mesophilic cellulolytic nonruminal bacterium, were investigated and characterized kinetically for the fermentation of cellulose by using chemostat culture analysis. Since with C. cellulolyticum (i) the ATP/ADP ratio is lower than 1, (ii) the production of lactate at low specific growth rate (mu) is low, and (iii) there is a decrease of the NADH/NAD(+) ratio and q(NADH produced)/ q(NADH used) ratio as the dilution rate (D) increases in carbon-limited conditions, the chemostats used were cellulose-limited continuously fed cultures. Under all conditions, ethanol and acetate were the main end products of catabolism. There was no shift from an acetate-ethanol fermentation to a lactate-ethanol fermentation as previously observed on cellobiose as mu increased (E. Guedon, S. Payot, M. Desvaux, and H. Petitdemange, J. Bacteriol. 181:3262-3269, 1999). The acetate/ethanol ratio was always higher than 1 but decreased with D. On cellulose, glucose 6-phosphate and glucose 1-phosphate are important branch points since the longer the soluble beta-glucan uptake is, the more glucose 1-phosphate will be generated. The proportion of carbon flowing toward phosphoglucomutase remained constant (around 59.0%), while the carbon surplus was dissipated through exopolysaccharide and glycogen synthesis. The percentage of carbon metabolized via pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase decreased with D. Acetyl coenzyme A was mainly directed toward the acetate formation pathway, which represented a minimum of 27.1% of the carbon substrate. Yet the proportion of carbon directed through biosynthesis (i.e., biomass, extracellular proteins, and free amino acids) and ethanol increased with D, reaching 27.3 and 16.8%, respectively, at 0.083 h(-1). Lactate and extracellular pyruvate remained low, representing up to 1.5 and 0.2%, respectively, of the original carbon uptake. The true growth yield obtained on cellulose was higher, [50.5 g of cells (mol of hexose eq)(-1)] than on cellobiose, a soluble cellodextrin [36.2 g of cells (mol of hexose eq)(-1)]. The rate of cellulose utilization depended on the solid retention time and was first order, with a rate constant of 0.05 h(-1). Compared to cellobiose, substrate hydrolysis by cellulosome when bacteria are grown on cellulose fibers introduces an extra means for regulation of the entering carbon flow. This led to a lower mu, and so metabolism was not as distorted as previously observed with a soluble substrate. From these results, C. cellulolyticum appeared well adapted and even restricted to a cellulolytic lifestyle.     

Control of Carbon and Electron Flow in Clostridium acetobutylicum Fermentations: Utilization of Carbon Monoxide to Inhibit Hydrogen Production and to Enhance Butanol Yields

Extracts prepared from non-solvent-producing cells of Clostridium acetobutylicum contained methyl viologen-linked hydrogenase activity (20 U/mg of protein at 37°C) but did not display carbon monoxide dehydrogenase activity. CO addition readily inhibited the hydrogenase activity of cell extracts or of viable metabolizing cells. Increasing the partial pressure of CO (2 to 10%) in unshaken anaerobic culture tube headspaces significantly inhibited (90% inhibition at 10% CO) both growth and hydrogen production by C. acetobutylicum. Growth was not sensitive to low partial pressures of CO (i.e., up to 15%) in pH-controlled fermentors (pH 4.5) that were continuously gassed and mixed. CO addition dramatically altered the glucose fermentation balance of C. acetobutylicum by diverting carbon and electrons away from H₂, CO₂, acetate, and butyrate production and towards production of ethanol and butanol. The butanol concentration was increased from 65 to 106 mM and the butanol productivity (i.e., the ratio of butanol produced/total acids and solvents produced) was increased by 31% when glucose fermentations maintained at pH 4.5 were continuously gassed with 85% N₂-15% CO versus N₂ alone. The results are discussed in terms of metabolic regulation of C. acetobutylicum saccharide fermentations to achieve maximal butanol or solvent yield.     

Clostridium cellulolyticum Viability and Sporulation under Cellobiose Starvation Conditions

Depending on the moment of cellobiose starvation, Clostridium cellulolyticum cells behave in different ways. Cells starved during the exponential phase of growth sporulate at 30%, whereas exhaustion of the carbon substrate at the beginning of growth does not provoke cell sporulation. Growth in the presence of excess cellobiose generates 3% spores. The response of C. cellulolyticum to carbon starvation involves changes in proteolytic activities; higher activities (20% protein degradation) corresponded to a higher level of sporulation; lower proteolysis (5%) was observed in cells starved during the beginning of exponential growth, when sporulation was not observed; with an excess of cellobiose, an intermediate value (10%), accompanied by a low level of sporulation, was observed in cells taken at the end of the exponential growth phase. The basal percentage of the protein breakdown in nonstarved culture was 4%. Cells lacking proteolytic activities failed to induce sporulation. High concentrations of cellobiose repressed proteolytic activities and sporulation. The onset of carbon starvation during the growth phase affected the survival response of C. cellulolyticum via the sporulation process and also via cell-cellulose interaction. Cells from the exponential growth phase were more adhesive to filter paper than cells from the stationary growth phase but less than cells from the late stationary growth phase.     

Formaldehyde Production by Cells of a Mutant of Candida boidinii S2 Grown in Methanol-limited Chemostat Culture

Formaldehyde production was investigated with cells of a mutant, AOU-1, of a methanol yeast, Candida boidinii S2 grown in methanol-limited chemostat culture. The highest productivity was shown with cells from the culture at a dilution rate of 0.075 hr^-1, when cells had the highest activity of alcohol oxidase and almost minimum activity of formaldehyde dehydrogenase. Under optimal reaction conditions, 950 mm formaldehyde was produced in 10-hr reaction with the cells. By the chemostat culture, not only formaldehyde productivity but also cell productivity was improved in comparison with batch culture. A maximum cell productivity of 0.2 g · liter^-1 · hr^-1 and a cell yield of 47% were obtained.     

Medium for Toxin Production by Clostridium perfringens in Continuous Culture

A tryptone-salts medium for continuous growth and alpha toxin production of Clostridium perfringens type A in an adapted chemostat is described. In such steady-state cultures, fermentative and biochemical activity of C. perfringens remained unchanged. Toxigenic ability to produce alpha, theta, and nu toxins was preserved.     

Kinetics and Metabolism of Cellulose Degradation at High Substrate Concentrations in Steady-State Continuous Cultures of Clostridium cellulolyticum on a Chemically Defined Medium

The hydrolysis and fermentation of insoluble cellulose were investigated using continuous cultures of Clostridium cellulolyticum with increasing amounts of carbon substrate. At a dilution rate (D) of 0.048 h⁻¹, biomass formation increased proportionately to the cellulose concentration provided by the feed reservoir, but at and above 7.6 g of cellulose liter⁻¹ the cell density at steady state leveled off. The percentage of cellulose degradation declined from 32.3 to 8.3 with 1.9 and 27.0 g of cellulose liter⁻¹, respectively, while cellodextrin accumulation rose and represented up to 4.0% of the original carbon consumed. The shift from cellulose-limited to cellulose-sufficient conditions was accompanied by an increase of both the acetate/ethanol ratio and lactate biosynthesis. A kinetics study of C. cellulolyticum metabolism in cellulose saturation was performed by varying D with 18.1 g of cellulose liter⁻¹. Compared to cellulose limitation (M. Desvaux, E. Guedon, and H. Petitdemange, J. Bacteriol. 183:119–130, 2001), in cellulose-sufficient continuous culture (i) the ATP/ADP, NADH/NAD⁺, and q_{NADH produced}/q_{NADH used} ratios were higher and were related to a more active catabolism, (ii) the acetate/ethanol ratio increased while the lactate production decreased as D rose, and (iii) the maximum growth yield (Y) (40.6 g of biomass per mol of hexose equivalent) and the maximum energetic yield (Y) (19.4 g of biomass per mol of ATP) were lowered. C. cellulolyticum was then able to regulate and optimize carbon metabolism under cellulose-saturated conditions. However, the facts that some catabolized hexose and hence ATP were no longer associated with biomass production with a cellulose excess and that concomitantly lactate production and pyruvate leakage rose suggest the accumulation of an intracellular inhibitory compound(s), which could further explain the establishment of steady-state continuous cultures under conditions of excesses of all nutrients. The following differences were found between growth on cellulose in this study and growth under cellobiose-sufficient conditions (E. Guedon, S. Payot, M. Desvaux, and H. Petitdemange, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 67:327–335, 2000): (i) while with cellobiose, a carbon flow into the cell of as high as 5.14 mmol of hexose equivalent g of cells⁻¹ h⁻¹ could be reached, the maximum entering carbon flow obtained here on cellulose was 2.91 mmol of hexose equivalent g of cells⁻¹ h⁻¹; (ii) while the NADH/NAD⁺ ratio could reach 1.51 on cellobiose, it was always lower than 1 on cellulose; and (iii) while a high proportion of cellobiose was directed towards exopolysaccharide, extracellular protein, and free amino acid excretions, these overflows were more limited under cellulose-excess conditions. Such differences were related to the carbon consumption rate, which was higher on cellobiose than on cellulose.     

Targeted gene engineering in Clostridium cellulolyticum H10 without methylation

Genetic engineering of Clostridium cellulolyticum has been developed slowly compared with that of other clostridial species, and one of the major reasons might be the restriction and modification (RM) system which degrades foreign DNA. Here, a putative MspI endonuclease gene, ccel2866, was inactivated by a ClosTron-based gene disruption method. The resulting C. cellulolyticum mutant H10ΔmspI lost the MspI endonuclease activity and can accept unmethylated DNA efficiently. Following that, an oxygen-independent green fluorescence protein gene was introduced into H10ΔmspI without methylation, generating a convenient reporter system to evaluate the expression of heterologous protein in C. cellulolyticum by green fluorescence. To further demonstrate the efficiency of the H10ΔmspI, double mutants H10ΔmspIΔldh and H10ΔmspIΔack were constructed by disrupting lactate dehydrogenase gene ccel2485 and acetate kinase gene ccel2136 in H10ΔmspI, respectively, without DNA methylation, and the stability of the double mutation was confirmed after the 100th generation. The mutant H10ΔmspI constructed here can be used as a platform for further targeted gene manipulation conveniently and efficiently. It will greatly facilitate the metabolic engineering of C. cellulolyticum aiming at faster cellulose degradation and higher biofuel production at the molecular level.     

Metabolism and Solubilization of Cellulose by Clostridium cellulolyticum H10

When Clostridium cellulolyticum was grown with cellulose MN300 as the substrate, the rates of growth and metabolite production were found to be lower than those observed with soluble sugars as the substrate. At low cellulose concentrations, the growth yields were equal to those obtained with cellobiose. The main fermentation products from cellulose and soluble sugars were the same. Up to 15 mM of consumed hexose, a change in the metabolic pathway favoring lactate production similar to that observed with soluble sugars was found to occur concomitantly with a decrease in molar growth yield. With cellulose concentrations above 5 g/liter, accumulation of soluble sugars occurred once growth had ceased. Glucose accounted for 30% of these sugars. A kinetic analysis of cellulose solubilization revealed that cellulolysis by C. cellulolyticum involved three stages whatever cellulose concentration was used. Analysis of these kinetics showed three consecutive enzymatic activity levels having the same K_m (0.8 g of cellulose per liter, i.e., 5 mM hexose equivalent) but decreasing values of V_max. The hypothesis is suggested that each step corresponds to differences in cellulose structure.     

Cellulose catabolism by Clostridium cellulolyticum growing in batch culture on defined medium

A reinvestigation of cellulose degradation by Clostridium cellulolyticum in a bioreactor with pH control of the batch culture and using a defined medium was performed. Depending on cellulose concentration, the carbon flow distribution was affected, showing the high flexibility of the metabolism. With less than 6.7 g of cellulose liter(-1), acetate, ethanol, H(2), and CO(2) were the main end products of the fermentation and cellulose degradation reached more than 85% in 5 days. The electron flow from the glycolysis was balanced by the production of H(2) and ethanol, the latter increasing with increasing initial cellulose concentration. From 6.7 to 29.1 g of cellulose liter(-1), the percentage of cellulose degradation declined; most of the cellulase activity remained on the cellulose fibers, the maximum cell density leveled off, and the carbon flow was reoriented from ethanol to acetate. In addition to that of previously indicated end products, lactate production rose, and, surprisingly enough, pyruvate overflow occurred. Concomitantly the molar growth yield and the energetic yield of the biomass decreased. Growth arrest may be linked to sufficiently high carbon flow, leading to the accumulation of an intracellular inhibitory compound(s), as observed on cellobiose (E. Guedon, M. Desvaux, S. Payot, and H. Petitdemange, Microbiology 145:1831-1838, 1999). These results indicated that bacterial metabolism exhibited on cellobiose was distorted compared to that exhibited on a substrate more closely related to the natural ecosystem of C. cellulolyticum. To overcome growth arrest and to improve degradation at high cellulose concentrations (29.1 g liter(-1)), a reinoculation mode was evaluated. This procedure resulted in an increase in the maximum dry weight of cells (2,175 mg liter(-1)), cellulose solubilization (95%), and end product concentrations compared to a classical batch fermentation with a final dry weight of cells of 580 mg liter(-1) and 45% cellulose degradation within 18 days.     

Efficient Genome Editing in Clostridium cellulolyticum via CRISPR-Cas9 Nickase

The CRISPR-Cas9 system is a powerful and revolutionary genome-editing tool for eukaryotic genomes, but its use in bacterial genomes is very limited. Here, we investigated the use of the Streptococcus pyogenes CRISPR-Cas9 system in editing the genome of Clostridium cellulolyticum, a model microorganism for bioenergy research. Wild-type Cas9-induced double-strand breaks were lethal to C. cellulolyticum due to the minimal expression of nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) components in this strain. To circumvent this lethality, Cas9 nickase was applied to develop a single-nick-triggered homologous recombination strategy, which allows precise one-step editing at intended genomic loci by transforming a single vector. This strategy has a high editing efficiency (>95%) even using short homologous arms (0.2 kb), is able to deliver foreign genes into the genome in a single step without a marker, enables precise editing even at two very similar target sites differing by two bases preceding the seed region, and has a very high target site density (median interval distance of 9 bp and 95.7% gene coverage in C. cellulolyticum). Together, these results establish a simple and robust methodology for genome editing in NHEJ-ineffective prokaryotes.     

Adhesion and growth rate of Clostridium cellulolyticum ATCC 35319 on crystalline cellulose.

The rate of tritiated-thymidine incorporation into DNA was used to estimate Clostridium cellulolyticum H10 growth rates on Avicel cellulose, taking into consideration both the unattached cells and the cells adhered to the substrate. The generation time on cellobiose calculated from the data on cell density (4.5 h) agreed well with the generation time calculated by tritiated-thymidine incorporation (3.8 h). Growth on Avicel cellulose occurred when bacteria were adhered to their substrate; 80% of the biomass was detected on the cellulose. Taking into consideration attached and free bacteria, the generation time as determined by thymidine incorporation was about 8 h, whereas by bacterial-protein estimation it was about 13 h. In addition to the growth rate of the bacteria on the cellulose, the release of adhered cells constituted an important factor in the efficiency of the cellulolysis. The stage of growth influenced adhesion of C. cellulolyticum; maximum adhesion was found during the exponential phase. Under the conditions used, the end of growth was characterized by an acute release of biomass and cellulase activity from the cellulose. An exhaustion of the accessible cellulose could be responsible for this release.     

球形红杆菌W1分批发酵和恒化培养的研究

本文对球形红杆菌Ｗ１的培养方式进行了研究。由分批培养确定了适于常规发酵的培养基及培养条件。恒化培养该菌的最大生长速率Ｐ＝３．８ｇ／ｌ．ｈ;最适稀释率Ｄ＝０．１５０ｈ＾－１;最大比生长速率为０．２０ｈ＾－１;饱和常数Ｋｓ＝２．８２ｇ／ｌ。恒化培养可获得比分批培养高的生长速率。     

Effect of dilution rate, cellobiose and ammonium availabilities on Clostridium cellulolyticum sporulation

The nutritional and physiological factors affecting sporulation of Clostridium cellulolyticum were studied using steady-state continuous cultures grown in both complex and synthetic media. Under cellobiose limitation, the probability that cells will sporulate appears to be directly related to the growth rate. In complex medium, the highest percentage of sporulation was 20% at a dilution rate of 0.015 h⁻¹ whereas in synthetic medium it was 10% at 0.035 h⁻¹. In both media, when the dilution rate was either higher or lower the percentage of sporulation decreased by between 2% and 4%. At low dilution rates, endospore formation was repressed under cellobiose-sufficient concentrations, suggesting catabolite repression by cellobiose. Furthermore, the concentration of ammonium was important in determining the percentage of sporulation, as ammonium limitation induced extensive sporulation at low growth rates even in an excess of cellobiose. The sporulation process is not triggered when cells are cellobiose-exhausted both in complex and synthetic media. These data suggest that, in C. cellulolyticum, an exogenous supply of carbon is required throughout the sporulation process. In the experimental conditions used in this work, no relationship between glycogen accumulation or glycogen mobilization and endospore formation was detected in C. cellulolyticum. Received: 15 April 1999 / Received revision: 15 June 1999 / Accepted: 22 June 1999