Photo-biological hydrogen production by an acid tolerant mutant of Rhodovulum sulfidophilum P5 generated by transposon mutagenesis

Most of the photosynthetic bacterial strains exhibit optimum hydrogen production at neutral initial pH, and lower initial pH resulted in a sharp decrease in hydrogen yield. Thus, screening of acid-tolerant hydrogen-producing photosynthetic bacteria is very important. To obtain acid tolerant mutants, a Tn7-based transposon was randomly inserted into the genomic DNA of Rhodovulum sulfidophilum P5. An acid tolerant mutant strain TH-102 exhibited increased hydrogen production in acidic environment (pH 4.5–6.5) and at higher temperatures (35 and 37 °C) than the wild-type strain. At pH 5.5 and 35 °C, the mutant strain TH-102 continuously produced hydrogen. The hydrogen yield and average rate were 2.16 ± 0.10 mol/mol acetate and 10.06 ± 0.47 mL/L h, which was about 17.32 and 15.37-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain, respectively. This acid- and temperature-tolerant mutant strain TH-102 could be used in a cost-effective hydrogen production process employing both dark fermentative and photosynthetic bacteria.