To improve the biohydrogen yield in bacterial dark fermentation, a new approach of global anaerobic regulation was introduced. Two cellular global regulators FNR and NarP were overexpressed in two model organisms: facultatively anaerobic Enterobacter aerogenes (Ea) and strictly anaerobic Clostridium paraputrificum (Cp). The overexpression of FNR and NarP greatly altered anaerobic metabolism and increased the hydrogen yield by 40%. Metabolic analysis showed that the global regulation caused more reducing environment inside the cell. To get a thorough understanding of the global metabolic regulation, more genes (fdhF, fhlA, ppk, Cb-fdh1, and Sc-fdh1) were overexpressed in different Ea and Cp mutants. For the first time, it demonstrated that there were approximately linear relationships between the relative change of hydrogen yield and the relative change of NADH yield or ATP yield. It implied that cellular reducing power and energy level played vital roles in the biohydrogen production. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.