identifier: traitmech:000180
label: acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation
definition: A fermentation in which solventogenic bacteria convert organic carbon
  sources to organic acids and then reassimilate those acids to produce acetone, butanol,
  and ethanol solvents.
definition_source: DOI:10.1073/pnas.1423143112
trait_category: METABOLISM
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1002005
synonyms:
- synonym_text: ABE fermentation
  synonym_type: EXACT_SYNONYM
  source: DOI:10.1073/pnas.1423143112
- synonym_text: acetone-butanol fermentation
  synonym_type: RELATED_SYNONYM
  source: DOI:10.1128/mr.50.4.484-524.1986
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.1073/pnas.1423143112
  snippet: One canonical example of such processes is acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE)
    fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum, during which cells convert carbon
    sources to organic acids that are later reassimilated to produce solvents as a
    strategy for cellular survival.
  notes: Liao et al. use the exact acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation name
    and describe the acidogenic-to-solventogenic conversion of carbon sources into
    solvent end products.
- reference: DOI:10.1002/bit.22003
  snippet: Biological production of butanol (with acetone and ethanol) was one of
    the largest industrial fermentation processes early in the 20th century.
  notes: Lee et al. independently review fermentative butanol production with acetone
    and ethanol by Clostridia.
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:272562
  taxon_label: Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
  note: Wild-type ATCC 824 strain whose ABE fermentations were experimentally reproduced
    by Liao et al.'s integrated model.
  reference: DOI:10.1073/pnas.1423143112
discussions:
- discussion_id: acetone-butanol-ethanol-fermentation-xref-gap
  prompt: Resolve an exact external ontology class for acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation
    before adding a TraitRecord xref.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: No exact GO or external metabolism class was resolved for the organism-level
    ABE fermentation phenotype; broader fermentation classes and individual solvent-production
    reactions are shifted relative to this product-specific fermentation class.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-09-14'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-09-14T02:40:39Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Minted acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation as a DOI-backed solventogenic
    fermentation TraitRecord after a repository-wide duplicate review covering ignored
    and hidden files; METPO has no exact acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation class
    yet and the placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v57.
  llm_assisted: true