On December 9, it was reported that the research team of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences made an important breakthrough in the field of synthetic sugar derivatives after reducing carbon dioxide to synthesize glucose and fatty acids in 2022.
The results were published in the journal Nature Catalysis on December 5.
Using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, the research team developed a yeast cell platform that converts carbon dioxide-derived low-carbon compounds such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol into sugars and sugar derivatives such as glucose, inositol, glucosamine, sucrose and starch.
The research team uses the low-carbon compound C1-3 as a fermentation feedstock, providing a solution with unlimited potential for microbial sustainable production of food and chemicals.
In this study, the team first analyzed the use of different low-carbon compounds by yeast to construct a yeast factory with a wider range of carbon sources.
The team then adjusted the mix and proportion of carbon sources to further improve yeast cell growth and glucose production.
Using engineered Pichia pastoris, the scientific team was able to efficiently convert methanol (C1) to glucose with shake flasks yields of up to 1. per liter08 grams, the fermenter yield reached 1341 grams.
Using ethanol, methanol, isopropanol and glycerol as carbon sources, the research team further expanded the diversity of carbohydrates, including five-carbon sugar xylose, xylitol, six-carbon sugar compounds inositol and glucosamine, disaccharide compound sucrose and polysaccharide compound starch.
Through metabolic engineering and the entry of heterologous synthetic pathways, engineered yeast can successfully convert low-carbon compounds into simple sugars xylose, xylitol, inositol and glucosamine. Among them, the highest shake flask yield of inositol and glucosamine reached 22871mg l and 6999 mg / l。
In addition to monosaccharides, researchers have also achieved the synthesis of disaccharides with higher carbon content. In this study, by introducing the sucrose synthesis pathway of Synechocystis and strengthening the endogenous metabolic flow, the obtained engineered strain could efficiently use low-carbon compounds as carbon sources to synthesize sucrose, and on this basis, the secretion and production of sucrose was realized by expressing sucrose transporters, and the yield of shake flasks could reach 117g l, the fermentation yield can reach 2541 g / l。
What's even more exciting is that researchers have achieved microbial synthesis of starch, which is involved in all aspects of our lives, and its importance cannot be overstated. In this study, the synthesis pathway of starch synthesis from low-carbon compounds was opened up by introducing two starch synthesis pathways and regulating the endogenous glycogen synthesis and degradation pathways, and the yield of the shake flask could reach 34159mg / l。These research results realize the "agricultural production" of microorganisms.