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
370 주형석 박사와 김은진 학생(강창원 교수 Lab), ‘2009 캠퍼스 특허전략 유니버시아드 대회’에서 기업 CEO상을 수상! 과사무실 2009.12.01 17575
369 조홍석 박사과정 학생, Traveling Award 및 Best Presentation Award 수상 과사무실 2010.07.16 11601
368 조병관교수님_온실가스를 바이오 물질로 전환…미생물 활용한 '인공광합성' 성공 생명과학과 2021.03.10 763
367 조병관 교수님_Antibiotic tolerance study paves way for new treatments 생명과학과 2021.02.19 1737
366 조병관 교수님_Antibiotic tolerance study paves way for new treatments 생명과학과 2021.03.03 723
365 조병관 교수님_ 미생물 이용한 탄소 가스 활용기술 개발 file 생명과학과 2020.03.27 3427
» 조병관 교수님 _Newly discovered metabolic pathway uses single carbon gases as a feedstock file 생명과학과 2020.11.20 3600
363 조병관 교수, 세계경제포럼 Young Scientist 에 선정! 과사무실 2012.09.17 13920
362 제5회 연구노트 경진대회(Lab Note Contest) 시상식 file 생명과학과 2020.04.03 4398
361 제1회 젊은 파스퇴르상 카이스트 석권! 과사무실 2010.03.02 11736
360 정형록 박사과정 학생, 최광욱 교수 Development Cell 게재(2016.02) / Hyung-Lok Chung, a Ph.D candidate and Prof. Kwang-Wook Choi published a paper in Dev. Cell (2016.02) 생명과학과 2016.03.11 12049
359 정현정교수_ 커피링 효과로 감염병 신속진단 기술 개발 생명과학과 2020.09.17 2322
358 정현정 교수님_도파민의 성질로 박테리아 생장의 실시간 탐지 기술 개발​ 생명과학과 2020.12.09 1309
357 정현정 교수, 한국 로레알-유네스코 여성과학자상 펠로우십 수상 file 생명과학과 2019.07.04 5594
356 정종경 교수 이달의 과학기술자상 12월 수상자로 선정 과사무실 2006.12.11 12329
355 정인경 교수님_유전자 온-오프 스위치 비밀 밝히는 정인경 카이스트 교수 생명과학과 2021.07.26 1052
354 정인경 교수님_KAIST, 전 세계 최대 규모의 3차원 암 게놈 지도 구축 생명과학과 2020.12.29 1243
353 정인경 교수, 인체 조직읜 3차원 게놈지도 해독 file 생명과학과 2019.09.25 4566
352 정유진 석사과정 학생, 조병관 교수 Nature Communications 논문 게재(2016.06) / Yujin Jeong, a Master's degree student and Prof. Byung-Kwan Cho published a paper in Nature Communications (2016.06) 생명과학과 2016.06.07 14194
351 정원석 교수님_국내 연구진, 우리 뇌가 계속 일할 수 있는 이유 밝혀 생명과학과 2021.02.26 1611
Board Pagination Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 22 Next
/ 22