Research project of Synthetic Biology Research Programme
SYNECO2: DESIGN AND
ENGINEERING OF SYNTHETIC
HYBRID PHOTO-ELECTRO ORGANISMS
Principal Investigator: Eva-Mari Aro
Project description
One of the global challenges in bioenergy research is to generate truly
renewable alternatives to substitute
petroleum-derived fuels. Nevertheless, most of present-day primary
renewable energy sources, like solar panels, produce electricity as the
main output. This poses the fundamental problem that electricity
cannot be stored and distributed
the same way as fuels used for
transport. Fusing these two concepts, (i) production of renewable
electricity and (ii) subsequent conversion of the electricity into chemical energy, may provide new insights in the development towards
sustainable fuel/energy economy.
Microorganisms can be harnessed
to produce desired target products
as part of their metabolism. The
aim of the SYNECO2 project is to
combine this capacity with the engineered ability to convert electricity into chemical energy in a process called microbial electrosynthesis (MES). The goal is to generate a
synthetic hybrid photo-electro organism (PEO) which can accept externally supplied electrons in the
form of electricity, and channel
them into chemical reducing equivalents which are used for biosynthesis of fuel molecules. Research
consortium is represented by the
University of Turku (PI Eva-Mari
Aro), VTT (PI Jussi Jäntti) and Aalto University (PI Päivi Törmä) and
focuses on following three subprojects towards successful construction of PEO organisms.
Modelling is a crucial component at
various levels of the project, including (i) modelling of the system components and the overall efficiencies
of ATP and redox equivalents, (ii)
incorporation of the electron and
photon capture to models of general
metabolism and product pathways,
(iii) more holistic models of the synthetic components and PEOs. In addition, (iv) system level models and
design concepts will be established
to enable efficient generation of
PEOs. Within this part of the project, the possible contribution of
quantum coherent energy transfer
will be especially investigated.
Engineering of synthetic hybrid
PEOs: Cyanobacteria are used as
the target microbes in generating a
photosynthetic PEO with optimal
ATP production. The approach is
to assemble a naturally-occurring
electron transport system (from a
proteobacterium Shewanella oneidensis) for capturing of electrons
on the outer membrane of a cyanobacterial cell from an external electrode, coupled to a transport chain
which would relay the electrons
into the cell metabolism for fuel
production. In parallel, we will introduce proteorhodopsins into
acetogenic bacteria, that can reduce
CO2 to organic acids with electrons provided e.g. from solar panels. At the same time, electrobioreactors have been established to enable detailed measurement of the
electron transport between the
cathode and the bacteria.
Quantum coherent energy transfer: Quantum effects are proposed to
explain the observed fast timescales
of energy and charge transfer in certain biological systems such as lightharvesting complexes. In this subproject we consider energy transport
in a generic one-dimensional quantum many-body system. We aim to
extend existing methods to account
also partially coherent systems, in
order to find out whether the efficiency of energy transfer is optimized for a partially quantum coherent system.
Throughout the progression of the
project modelling-design-experimentation generates an iterative cycle
where the system components and
system performance are improved.
CONTACT:
Eva-Mari Aro, [email protected], (02) 333 5931
WWW.AKA.FI/FINSYNBIO
10/2014