14-ERASynBio Engineering the chloroplast of microalgae as a chassis for the direct production of solar fuels and chemicals

21世纪最大的挑战之一是可再生资源的能源和化学品的可持续供应。在太阳能的驱动下，叶绿体在自然界中作为最有效的最小细胞工厂，通过水的氧化产生化学能，但它们自然地转向固定碳以构建细胞成分。我们的长期目标是在“绿色酵母”莱茵衣藻（Chlamydomonas reinhardtii）中设计一种合成叶绿体，可以作为可持续生产生物燃料和化学品的基础。为了实现这样一个雄心勃勃的目标，我们将开发各种工具，这些工具将从自下而上的方法构建我们的底盘。首先，我们将开发定义良好的微藻生物砖，以便在叶绿体中有效地插入蛋白质和代谢回路。其次，我们将通过重定向光合电子电路产生合适的衣藻菌株。第三，我们将按照达尔文进化的原则设计光合链的关键参与者来控制能量的传递。最先进的蛋白质膜电化学工程生物催化剂将指导设计过程。作为原理验证，我们将使用优化菌株的叶绿体与工程光合链参与者组装生物砖，以产生生物氢和烷烃作为光和水的副产品。该项目将被视为一个原理证明，并将加快开发新的生物技术概念，从而建立“太阳能电池叶绿体工厂”。按照合成生物学原理设计和建造叶绿体底盘将允许可持续生产生物燃料和有价值的化学品，为碳中性生物经济铺平道路，这种经济可以满足我们社会日益增长的能源需求，同时减轻气候变化的破坏性影响。

One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is the sustainable supply of energy and chemicals from renewable resources. Driven by solar energy, chloroplasts function in nature as the most efficient minimal cell factories for generating chemical energy through the oxidation of water, but they are naturally tuned towards the fixation of carbon for building-up cellular components. Our long-term goal is to design a synthetic chloroplast in the "green yeast" Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that can be used as a chassis for the sustainable production of biofuels and chemicals. To achieve such an ambitious goal, we will develop various tools that will be indispensable to construct our chassis from a bottom-up approach. First, we will develop well-defined microalgal BioBricks to allow an efficient plug-in of protein and metabolic circuits in the chloroplast. Secondly, we will generate suitable Chlamydomonas strains by re-directing the photosynthetic electron circuits. Thirdly, we will engineer key players of the photosynthetic chain following the principles of Darwinian evolution for controlling energy delivery. State-of-the-art protein film electrochemistry of the engineered biocatalysts will guide the design processes. As a proof-of-principle, we will then use the chloroplast of optimised strains for assembling the BioBricks with the engineered photosynthetic chain players to produce bio-hydrogen and alkanes as by-products from light and water. This project is to be considered as a proof of principle and will step-up the development of novel biotechnology concepts that will establish "solar-cell chloroplast factories". The design and construction of a chloroplast chassis following synthetic biology principles will allow the sustainable production of biofuels and valuable chemicals, paving down the grounds for a carbon-neutral bio-economy that can supply our society with an increasing energy demand, while mitigating the damaging effects of climate change.