Chain elongating microbiome Raw sequence reads. Chain elongating microbiome

Caproic acid producing microbiomes were enriched from a range of inocula - 3 full-scale anaerobic digesters, 2 animal faeces and 1 caproic acid producing pilot installation - on ethanol and acetic acid as substrates at pH 7 and pH 5.5. These enrichments showed that (i) the origin of the inoculum determines the pH where chain elongators can grow, (ii) caproic acid production is heavily impacted by pH, likely due to toxicity, however (iii) growth rates were not influenced by pH, (iv) all communities contained an OTU closely related to Clostridium kluyveri, a well-known ethanol chain elongator, and (v) low pH select for narrower communities, with higher degrees of enrichment in Clostridium kluyveri.