Descripción del proyecto
Mediadores redox en la bioproducción
Actualmente, solo puede lograrse una amplia cartera de bioproductos en muchos procesos cuando los microorganismos tienen acceso al oxígeno como aceptor de electrones. Con todo, para muchas sustancias objetivo, el oxígeno es perjudicial para el funcionamiento del bioproceso y para la estabilidad del producto. El objetivo principal del proyecto e-MICROBe, financiado con fondos europeos, es ligar el metabolismo microbiano y la electroquímica a través de un mediador de electrones solubles autosecretado para lograr un metabolismo energéticamente eficiente e independiente del oxígeno y controlar directamente el metabolismo y la formación de productos. El proyecto evaluará una estrategia integral, en la que una célula genera los mediadores y el productor objetivo, y el método alternativo de un sistema de cocultivo, en el que una célula produce los mediadores y una célula asociada los emplea para la electrorespiración y la formación de productos.
Objetivo
In many bioprocesses a broad bioproduct portfolio can currently only be obtained when microorganisms can access oxygen as an electron acceptor. For numerous target substances, however, oxygen is detrimental to product stability and the bioprocess operation. The central aim of e-MICROBe is to innately couple microbial metabolism and electrochemistry via a self-secreted soluble electron mediator to achieve efficient oxygen independent energy metabolism and to directly steer and control metabolism and product formation. This will require creating entirely new physiological traits for production and utilization of redox mediators to generate cellular energy. Thereby, mediators can either act as electron discharge shuttle to enable electro-respiration at an anode or they are employed as inorganic energy donor to deliver electrons from a cathode into the metabolism. We will clarify the underlying reaction pathways in known environmental microorganisms and re-engineer the energy metabolism of common biotech hosts. Thereby, we will switch cellular energy generation from aerobic respiration to anaerobic anodic electro-respiration or from hydrogen consumption as autotrophic electron donor to cathodic electron consumption. The latter process will provide a mechanism to store electrical energy in microbial products. For a new level of in situ insight into microbial energy metabolism, a novel micro-scale bioelectrochemical reactor coupled to microscopic observation and high performance analysis will be developed. With this technique two fundamental concepts for future mediator-based bioprocesses will be evaluated: An all-in-one strategy where one cell is generating the mediators and the targeted product as well as a co-culture system, whereby one cell produces the mediators and a partner cell utilizes them for electro-respiration and product formation. This concept will lay the foundation for a plug-and-play exchange of biotech strains in a mediator-producing co-culture system.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
07745 Jena
Alemania