Treece Tanner R, Gonzales Jake N, Pressley Joseph R, Atsumi Shota
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
Plant Biology Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Mar 11;10:869195. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.869195. eCollection 2022.
Biological chemical production has gained traction in recent years as a promising renewable alternative to traditional petrochemical based synthesis. Of particular interest in the field of metabolic engineering are photosynthetic microorganisms capable of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. CO levels have continued to rise at alarming rates leading to an increasingly uncertain climate. CO can be sequestered by engineered photosynthetic microorganisms and used for chemical production, representing a renewable production method for valuable chemical commodities such as biofuels, plastics, and food additives. The main challenges in using photosynthetic microorganisms for chemical production stem from the seemingly inherent limitations of carbon fixation and photosynthesis resulting in slower growth and lower average product titers compared to heterotrophic organisms. Recently, there has been an increase in research around improving photosynthetic microorganisms as renewable chemical production hosts. This review will discuss the various efforts to overcome the intrinsic inefficiencies of carbon fixation and photosynthesis, including rewiring carbon fixation and photosynthesis, investigating alternative carbon fixation pathways, installing sugar catabolism to supplement carbon fixation, investigating newly discovered fast growing photosynthetic species, and using new synthetic biology tools such as CRISPR to radically alter metabolism.
近年来,生物化学生产作为一种有前景的可再生替代传统石化合成方法,已获得广泛关注。在代谢工程领域,特别受关注的是能够吸收大气中二氧化碳的光合微生物。二氧化碳水平持续以惊人的速度上升,导致气候愈发不确定。工程化光合微生物可以吸收二氧化碳并用于化学生产,这代表了一种用于生产生物燃料、塑料和食品添加剂等有价值化学商品的可再生生产方法。利用光合微生物进行化学生产的主要挑战源于碳固定和光合作用似乎固有的局限性,与异养生物相比,这导致生长较慢且平均产物滴度较低。最近,围绕将光合微生物改进为可再生化学生产宿主的研究有所增加。本综述将讨论为克服碳固定和光合作用内在低效率所做的各种努力,包括重新构建碳固定和光合作用、研究替代碳固定途径、安装糖分解代谢以补充碳固定作用、研究新发现的快速生长光合物种,以及使用如CRISPR等新的合成生物学工具从根本上改变代谢。