Light-driven carbon dioxide reduction to methane by nitrogenase in a photosynthetic bacterium

Fixen, Kathryn R.; Zheng, Yanning; Harris, Derek F.; Shaw, Sudipta; Yang, Zhi -Yong; Dean, Dennis R.; Seefeldt, Lance C.; Harwood, Caroline S.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1611043113

Title: Light-driven carbon dioxide reduction to methane by nitrogenase in a photosynthetic bacterium

Journal Article · 22 August 2016 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611043113 · OSTI ID:1319953

Fixen, Kathryn R. ^[1]; Zheng, Yanning ^[1]; Harris, Derek F. ^[2]; Shaw, Sudipta ^[2]; Yang, Zhi -Yong ^[2]; Dean, Dennis R. ^[3]; Seefeldt, Lance C. ^[2];

^[1]

Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States)
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)

Nitrogenase is an ATP-requiring enzyme capable of carrying out multielectron reductions of inert molecules. A purified remodeled nitrogenase containing two amino acid substitutions near the site of its FeMo cofactor was recently described as having the capacity to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) to methane (CH₄). Here, we developed the anoxygenic phototroph, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, as a biocatalyst capable of light-driven CO₂ reduction to CH₄ in vivo using this remodeled nitrogenase. Conversion of CO₂ to CH₄ by R. palustris required constitutive expression of nitrogenase, which was achieved by using a variant of the transcription factor NifA that is able to activate expression of nitrogenase under all growth conditions. Also, light was required for generation of ATP by cyclic photophosphorylation. CH₄ production by R. palustris could be controlled by manipulating the distribution of electrons and energy available to nitrogenase. Furthermore, this work shows the feasibility of using microbes to generate hydrocarbons from CO₂ in one enzymatic step using light energy.

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Research Organization:: Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis (BETCy)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012518

OSTI ID:: 1319953

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1436487

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 113, Issue 36; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Metabolic engineering of Rhodopseudomonas palustris for the obligate reduction of n-butyrate to n-butanol Doud, Devin F. R.; Holmes, Eric C.; Richter, Hanno Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-017-0864-3	journal	July 2017
Aerobic nitrogen-fixing bacteria for hydrogen and ammonium production: current state and perspectives Barney, Brett M. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 104, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10210-9	journal	December 2019
A pathway for biological methane production using bacterial iron-only nitrogenase Zheng, Yanning; Harris, Derek F.; Yu, Zheng Nature Microbiology, Vol. 3, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0091-5	journal	January 2018
Reconstructing the evolutionary history of nitrogenases: Evidence for ancestral molybdenum‐cofactor utilization Garcia, Amanda K.; McShea, Hanon; Kolaczkowski, Bryan Geobiology, Vol. 18, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12381	journal	February 2020
Efforts toward optimization of aerobic biohydrogen reveal details of secondary regulation of biological nitrogen fixation by nitrogenous compounds in Azotobacter vinelandii Knutson, Carolann M.; Plunkett, Mary H.; Liming, Rachel A. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 102, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-9363-0	journal	September 2018
Influence of Energy and Electron Availability on In Vivo Methane and Hydrogen Production by a Variant Molybdenum Nitrogenase Zheng, Yanning; Harwood, Caroline S. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 85, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02671-18	journal	March 2019
The path of electron transfer to nitrogenase in a phototrophic alpha‐proteobacterium Fixen, Kathryn R.; Pal Chowdhury, Nilanjan; Martinez‐Perez, Marta Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 20, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14262	journal	July 2018

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60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
nitrogenase
Rhodopseudomonas
bioenergy
methane
engineered bacterium

Title: Light-driven carbon dioxide reduction to methane by nitrogenase in a photosynthetic bacterium

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