Advancing Biotechnologies for Fuel Generation: Exploiting Transmembrane Cytochromes for Solar Energy Conversion

推进燃料生产生物技术：利用跨膜细胞色素进行太阳能转换

• 批准号: BB/K009885/1
• 负责人: Julea Butt
• 金额: $ 48.09万
• 依托单位: University of East Anglia
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FK009885%2F1
• 关键词: Advancing; Biotechnologies; Fuel; Generation; Exploiting

Reports concerning dwindling reserves of fossil fuels and concerns over fuel security are frequent news headlines. The rising costs of fuel are a daily reminder of the challenges faced by a global society with ever increasing energy demands. In this context it is perhaps surprising that so many of the renewable energy supplies available to us, namely, sunlight, winds and waves, remain largely untapped resources. This is mainly due to the challenges that exist in converting these energy forms into fuels from which energy can be released 'on demand' when we wish to play computer games, drive a car and so on. However, during plant photosynthesis fuels are made naturally from the energy in sunlight. Light absorption by the green chlorophyll pigments generates an energised electron that is directed, along chains of metal centres, to catalysts that make sugars. These sugars fuel us, and all animals, when their energy is released following digestion of a meal. However, using farmed plants to produce biofuels is controversial as agriculture is also required to feed the world. As a consequence, and inspired by natural processes, we propose to build a system for artificial photosynthesis. In essence, we wish to place tiny solar-panels on microbes in order to harness sunlight to drive the production of hydrogen - a fuel from which the technologies to release energy on demand are well-advanced. We will use dyes and semi-conductor particles as mechanically and chemically robust materials to capture the energy in sunlight and generate energised electrons. We will couple these particles to biology's version of conducting wires. These wires are made from heme proteins that span membranes that provide Nature's solution to compartmentalising water-filled chambers (i.e., the inside of the bacterium). The heme-wires are produced naturally by 'rock-breathing' microorganisms and after these wires have transferred the energised electrons across the membrane they will drive enzyme catalysis to produce hydrogen Our novel bio-mimetic photocatalysts will establish new principles for the design of homogeneous photocatalysts with spatially segregated sites for fuel-evolution and the supply of electrons that is needed to sustain this process. We imagine that our photocatalysts will proove versatile and that with slight modification they will be able to harness solar energy for the manufacture of drugs and fine chemicals.

关于化石燃料储量减少和对燃料安全的担忧的报道经常成为新闻头条。燃料成本的不断上涨每天都在提醒人们，随着能源需求的不断增加，全球社会面临着各种挑战。在这方面，我们可以利用的许多可再生能源，即阳光、风和海浪，大部分仍然是未开发的资源，这也许令人惊讶。这主要是因为当我们想玩电脑游戏、开车等时，将这些能量形式转化为燃料的挑战。然而，在植物光合作用过程中，燃料是从阳光中的能量自然产生的。光被绿色叶绿素色素吸收后，产生一个被激发的电子，该电子被引导，沿着沿着金属中心链，到达制造糖的催化剂。这些糖为我们和所有动物提供燃料，当它们的能量在消化食物后释放时。然而，使用农场植物生产生物燃料是有争议的，因为农业也需要养活世界。因此，受自然过程的启发，我们建议建立一个人工光合作用系统。从本质上讲，我们希望在微生物上放置微型太阳能电池板，以利用阳光来驱动氢的生产--氢是一种燃料，根据需要释放能量的技术非常先进。我们将使用染料和半导体颗粒作为机械和化学上坚固的材料，以捕获阳光中的能量并产生能量电子。我们将把这些粒子连接到生物学的导线上。这些电线是由血红素蛋白制成的，血红素蛋白跨越膜，提供了自然界的解决方案，以分隔充满水的腔室（即，细菌的内部）。血红素线是由“岩石呼吸”微生物自然产生的，在这些线将通电电子转移到膜上后，它们将驱动酶催化产生氢。我们的新型仿生光催化剂将为设计具有空间隔离的燃料进化位点的均质光催化剂和维持这一过程所需的电子供应建立新的原则。我们设想，我们的光催化剂将被证明是多用途的，只要稍加修改，它们就能利用太阳能来制造药物和精细化学品。

项目成果

Redox Linked Flavin Sites in Extracellular Decaheme Proteins Involved in Microbe-Mineral Electron Transfer.

• DOI: 10.1038/srep11677
• 发表时间: 2015-07-01
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Edwards MJ;White GF;Norman M;Tome-Fernandez A;Ainsworth E;Shi L;Fredrickson JK;Zachara JM;Butt JN;Richardson DJ;Clarke TA
• 通讯作者: Clarke TA

Structural modeling of an outer membrane electron conduit from a metal-reducing bacterium suggests electron transfer via periplasmic redox partners.

• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.ra118.001850
• 发表时间: 2018-05-25
• 期刊: The Journal of biological chemistry
• 作者: Edwards MJ;White GF;Lockwood CW;Lawes MC;Martel A;Harris G;Scott DJ;Richardson DJ;Butt JN;Clarke TA
• 通讯作者: Clarke TA

Characterization of MtoD from Sideroxydans lithotrophicus: a cytochrome c electron shuttle used in lithoautotrophic growth.

• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.00332
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Frontiers in microbiology
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Beckwith CR;Edwards MJ;Lawes M;Shi L;Butt JN;Richardson DJ;Clarke TA
• 通讯作者: Clarke TA