Floc Formation of Ethanol Producing <i>Escherichia coli</i> KO11 Cells and Its Application to Repeated Batch Operation

Microbial flocculation is an aggregation phenomenon of bacterial cells in the form of flocs or flakes. In this study, we endowed ethanol producing E. coli KO11 cells with floc-forming ability by overexpressing a native bcsB gene (KO11/pNbcsB) without negative effect on ethanol production. Quantitative evaluation of the formed flocs was conducted on the basis of the protein amount included within floc structure. The results showed that glucose...