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
83 정원석 교수_ 삼성전자, ‘세계 알츠하이머의 날’ 맞아 연구원 노력 담은 영상 공개 생명과학과 2020.09.21 3110
82 정원석 교수님_Astrocytes eat connections to maintain plasticity in adult brains 생명과학과 2020.12.28 2482
81 정원석 교수님_KAIST, 신경세포의 흥분성 증가로 인한 뇌 질환 기제 규명 생명과학과 2021.06.03 1905
80 정원석 교수님_국내 연구진, 우리 뇌가 계속 일할 수 있는 이유 밝혀 생명과학과 2021.02.26 2170
79 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 14894
78 정인경 교수, 인체 조직읜 3차원 게놈지도 해독 file 생명과학과 2019.09.25 5078
77 정인경 교수님_KAIST, 전 세계 최대 규모의 3차원 암 게놈 지도 구축 생명과학과 2020.12.29 1814
76 정인경 교수님_유전자 온-오프 스위치 비밀 밝히는 정인경 카이스트 교수 생명과학과 2021.07.26 1686
75 정종경 교수 이달의 과학기술자상 12월 수상자로 선정 과사무실 2006.12.11 12801
74 정현정 교수, 한국 로레알-유네스코 여성과학자상 펠로우십 수상 file 생명과학과 2019.07.04 6230
73 정현정 교수님_도파민의 성질로 박테리아 생장의 실시간 탐지 기술 개발​ 생명과학과 2020.12.09 1918
72 정현정교수_ 커피링 효과로 감염병 신속진단 기술 개발 생명과학과 2020.09.17 2796
71 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 12506
70 제1회 젊은 파스퇴르상 카이스트 석권! 과사무실 2010.03.02 12356
69 제5회 연구노트 경진대회(Lab Note Contest) 시상식 file 생명과학과 2020.04.03 4964
68 조병관 교수, 세계경제포럼 Young Scientist 에 선정! 과사무실 2012.09.17 14501
» 조병관 교수님 _Newly discovered metabolic pathway uses single carbon gases as a feedstock file 생명과학과 2020.11.20 4361
66 조병관 교수님_ 미생물 이용한 탄소 가스 활용기술 개발 file 생명과학과 2020.03.27 3989
65 조병관 교수님_Antibiotic tolerance study paves way for new treatments 생명과학과 2021.02.19 2361
64 조병관 교수님_Antibiotic tolerance study paves way for new treatments 생명과학과 2021.03.03 1432
Board Pagination Prev 1 ... 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
/ 23