Engineering Semi-Artificial Cells for New-to-Nature Photosynthesis

工程半人工细胞用于新的自然光合作用

• 批准号: BB/Y008308/1
• 负责人: Jenny Zhang
• 金额: $ 95.8万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FY008308%2F1
• 关键词: Engineering; Semi; Artificial; Cells; New

Photosynthesis is an ancient process carried out by organisms including plants, algae and cyanobacteria, whereby sunlight is captured and converted to energy vectors that are then used to synthesis chemicals. However, natural photosynthetic processes were not evolved for efficiency. The ability to engineer more efficient and enhanced photosynthetic processes would lead to more promising sustainable ways of clean (bio)energy generation.This project aims to build semi-artificial photosynthetic cells from the bottom up using a new biohybrid approach, to ultimately demonstrate how to engineer cells for enhanced or new-to-nature photosynthesis. The objectives towards this are to firstly isolate and modify the light harvesting/charge propagating component of photosynthesis (the thylakoids) to be able to convert more of the solar spectrum into usable energy/charge carriers. The second objective is to completely reprogram powerful CO2 concentrating capsules found in cyanobacteria, called carboxysomes, by replacing the naturally slow enzyme for CO2 conversion (RUBISCO) with much more efficient enzymes that can turn protons and CO2 into useful feedstocks including hydrogen gas and formate. The last objective is to encapsulate the two new biohybrid components into artificial cells so that the new 'light reaction' can be in close enough proximity to drive the new 'dark reactions'. This strategy will allow us to understand how to best tune the ratios of 'light' to 'dark' components within photosynthesis, as well as any intermediate energy carriers, to best balance the input and output fluxes and give rise to the most efficient light-to-chemical conversion systems. This is a highly original approach for engineering photosynthetic cells that will likely yield new photosynthetic efficiencies or chemistries not possible using classical synthetic biology approaches. This work will provide valuable lessons into how photosynthetic cells can be bioengineered for bespoke performances in the future, which will benefit severl research areas beyond clean energy, including agriculture and bio-manufacturing.

光合作用是植物、藻类和蓝细菌等生物体进行的一个古老过程，阳光被捕获并转化为能量载体，然后用于合成化学品。然而，自然光合作用过程并不是为了效率而进化的。设计更高效和增强的光合作用过程的能力将带来更有前景的可持续清洁（生物）能源发电方式。该项目旨在使用新的生物混合方法自下而上构建半人工光合细胞，最终演示如何改造细胞以增强或全新的光合作用。其目标是首先分离和修改光合作用的光捕获/电荷传播部分（类囊体），以便能够将更多的太阳光谱转化为可用的能量/电荷载体。第二个目标是彻底重新编程蓝藻中发现的强大的二氧化碳浓缩胶囊（称为羧基体），用更高效的酶取代天然缓慢的二氧化碳转化酶（RUBISCO），这些酶可以将质子和二氧化碳转化为有用的原料，包括氢气和甲酸盐。最后一个目标是将两种新的生物混合成分封装到人造细胞中，以便新的“光反应”能够足够接近地驱动新的“暗反应”。这一策略将使我们能够了解如何最好地调整光合作用中“光”与“暗”成分的比率以及任何中间能量载体，以最好地平衡输入和输出通量并产生最有效的光。化学转化系统。这是一种高度原创的光合细胞工程方法，可能会产生使用经典合成生物学方法不可能实现的新的光合作用效率或化学作用。这项工作将为如何对光合细胞进行生物工程改造以实现未来的定制性能提供宝贵的经验教训，这将有利于清洁能源以外的多个研究领域，包括农业和生物制造。