講者：蘭宜錚教授
演講題目：Towards sustainability through metabolic engineering of microbial cell factories
演講時間：3/13(五) 3:30~5:00 pm
演講地點：普通教室101教室
主持人：謝之真教授
Towards sustainability through metabolic engineering of
microbial cell factories
Ethan I Lan
Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University
Increasing concerns over global climate change and eventual depletion of fossil fuel resources are two of the most significant challenges of this century. Production of biofuel and biochemical is a promising approach to solving both of these challenges. However, natural microorganisms have limited ability to produce the diverse fossil fuel derived products needed in modern society. To address this limitation, metabolic engineering of microbial cell factories can develop better whole cell bio-catalysts to convert renewable biological feedstock into replacements for petrochemicals and fuels. Among the various bioresources utilization strategies, the direct conversion of CO2 to useable chemicals by microalgae and cyanobacteria is an attractive approach because it bypasses the need of plant growth and the difficulty of plant biomass recalcitrance.
1-Butanol is a potential gasoline surrogate and a chemical feedstock used in many industries. We engineered a model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 for the production of 1-butanol. The natural Clostridium 1-butanol production pathway is not compatible with cyanobacteria for functional expression. As a result, direct photosynthetic production of 1-butanol has been limited. To redesign the pathway for functional expression in cyanobacteria, we engineered a synthetic driving force into the pathway and solved the problem of enzyme oxygen sensitivity by recruiting enzymes from 1,2-propanediol degradation pathway. To further increase the chemical diversity that we can produce using microbes, we extend the pathway for 1-butanol biosynthesis to produce 1-hexanol and 2-pentanone using Escherichia coli.
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