KAIST 생명과학과동창회
  • News & Events
  • News

News

November 19, 2020

Newly discovered metabolic pathway uses single carbon gases as a feedstock

by




18-newlydiscove.jpg


Figure 1. Acetyl-CoA production ratio in wild-type and knockout strains. Credit:  


A joint research team, affiliated with UNIST has identified a new metabolic pathway, in which microorganisms use single carbon (C1) gasses (CO and CO2) as a feedstock. The new metabolic pathway is thought to be the most energetically efficient pathway, compared to the existing ones, and thus is expected to be used in a variety of industrial applications that involved the conversion of C1 gas into value-added biochemicals.


Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this research has been jointly carried out by Professor Donghyuk Kim (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST) and Professor Byung-Kwan Cho (Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST), joined by Dr. Yoseb Song (Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST) as the first author.

There are currently six autotrophic CO2 fixation pathways, capable of converting C1 gas into and one representative example is the photosynthesis in plants. Among those CO2-fixing in nature, the linear wood-ljungdahl (WLP) in phylogenetically diverse acetateforming acetogens is known to be the most energetically efficient pathway to fix C1 compounds. In particular, acetogens play an important role in the , with nearly 1,013 kg (100 billion US tons) of acetic acid being formed annually.


However, the growth rate of acetogens is 10 times slower than that of industrial microorganisms, such as E. coli. And this puts a limit on its use as industrial microorganisms for the conversion of C1 gas into useful biochemical products. Accordingly, many studies on a new and more effective CO2 fixation have been carried out.


19-newlydiscove.jpg

Figure 2. Construction of the genome-scale metabolic network model of C. drakei


The research team paid special attention to the growth rate of Clostridium drakei, which was faster than that of the other microorganisms, when accompanied by CO2 absorption. And, through this, they expected they might find clues to enhance the C1 gas conversion efficiency.


In this study, using the reconstructed genome-scale metabolic model iSL771 based on the completed genome sequence, transcriptomics, 13C isotope-based metabolite-tracing experiments, biochemical assays, and heterologous expression of the pathway in another acetogen, the research team discovered that the WLP and the glycine synthase pathway are functionally interconnected to fix CO2, subsequently converting CO2 into acetyl-CoA, acetyl-phosphate, and serine.


Moreover, the functional cooperation of the pathways enhances CO2 consumption and cellular growth rates via bypassing reducing power required reactions for cellular metabolism during autotrophic growth of acetogens.

"With the new CO2-fixing metabolic pathway, we shall overcome limitations in the biosynthesis for the production of high value-added compounds, brought by the slow growth rate of acetogens," says Professor Kim. 



https://phys.org/news/2020-11-newly-metabolic-pathway-carbon-gases.html


List of Articles
번호 제목 글쓴이 날짜 조회 수
323 서성배 교수님(김진은 석박사통합과정)_2020 대한민국 인재상 수상 생명과학과 2021.02.25 2556
322 KAIST-원진 세포치료센터 기부 및 투자 약정 업무협약식 생명과학과 2021.02.22 1642
321 허원도 교수님(유다슬이 박사)_제10회 에쓰-오일 우수학위논문상'의 생명과학 분야 대상 수상 생명과학과 2021.02.22 1398
320 조병관 교수님_Antibiotic tolerance study paves way for new treatments 생명과학과 2021.02.19 2372
319 김진우 교수님, 천주교 서울대교구 생명위원회 제 15회 '생명의 신비상' 수상 생명과학과 2021.02.18 1320
318 오병하 교수님_자연에 없는 고감도 단백질 센서 제작 플랫폼 개발 생명과학과 2021.02.08 1296
317 김찬혁 교수님_인공지능 이용 면역항암 세포 3차원 분석기술 개발 생명과학과 2021.02.08 1754
316 정인경 교수님_KAIST, 전 세계 최대 규모의 3차원 암 게놈 지도 구축 생명과학과 2020.12.29 1823
315 정원석 교수님_Astrocytes eat connections to maintain plasticity in adult brains 생명과학과 2020.12.28 2490
314 전상용 교수님_Researchers review future directions of nanomedicine development 생명과학과 2020.12.28 1552
313 김진우 교수님_생명의 신비상 장려상 수상 생명과학과 2020.12.24 2209
312 정현정 교수님_도파민의 성질로 박테리아 생장의 실시간 탐지 기술 개발​ 생명과학과 2020.12.09 1923
» 조병관 교수님 _Newly discovered metabolic pathway uses single carbon gases as a feedstock file 생명과학과 2020.11.20 4380
310 [한국의 AI 추격자들] 서범석·백승욱 루닛 창업자 file 생명과학과 2020.10.30 3646
309 정원석 교수_ 삼성전자, ‘세계 알츠하이머의 날’ 맞아 연구원 노력 담은 영상 공개 생명과학과 2020.09.21 3119
308 정현정교수_ 커피링 효과로 감염병 신속진단 기술 개발 생명과학과 2020.09.17 2802
307 서경배재단 ‘올해의 신진 과학자’ 조원기 교수 선정 생명과학과 2020.09.16 4589
306 전상용교수님_항암제 표적 단백질을 약물 전달체로 쓴다?​ file 생명과학과 2020.08.26 3471
305 이승재 교수님_One More Key to Human Longevity Found After Worm Research 생명과학과 2020.07.03 11438
304 전상용 교수님_ 면역항암제 효율 높인 나노입자 백신 개발 file 생명과학과 2020.06.17 3713
Board Pagination Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ... 23 Next
/ 23