Building Solar-Powered, Carbon-Fixing Protoalgae

构建太阳能固碳原藻

• 批准号: BB/M02315X/1
• 负责人: Ross Anderson
• 金额: $ 48.26万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FM02315X%2F1
• 关键词: Building; Solar; Powered; Carbon; Fixing

Algae are single-celled organisms that use sunlight to power their metabolism and convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into useful carbohydrates. Like plants, they have a sophisticated photosynthetic machinery that has evolved to efficiently capture light energy and convert it into a type of biological electricity. This electricity flows through circuits that are embedded in proteins - biological molecules built from linear chains of amino acids that adopt complex 3D structures informed by their amino acid sequence. These proteins also contain within them other types of biologically derived molecules that impart specific functions necessary for capturing light and forming electrical circuits. Since we now have a good, working understanding of the photosynthetic machinery at the atomic level, it is possible to consider the key steps in this process and incorporate them into entirely new, manmade proteins or redesigned natural proteins; thus, the photosynthetic process could be recapitulated in much simpler, scaled-down systems. We have therefore selected both manmade and natural proteins to act as functional building blocks in an artificial photosynthetic pathway that will allow us not only to operate a simple photosynthetic process, but also to encapsulated it within an elementary cell-like assembly called a protocell. These entities are designed to facilitate the input of functional biological and artificial components in a very simple compartment, much like a living bacterial cell. Currently, since there is limited or no information storage capacity in these protocells, they cannot evolve or actively reproduce and they act as a safe platform for us to test our understanding of complex biological molecules and systems, while allowing us to explore aspects of the origin of life on Earth. Protocells can also exhibit unusual influences on biological molecules like proteins, increasing the rates of enzymes - proteins capable of performing chemical reactions - and providing a useful facsimile of the environment in which proteins and enzymes evolved. We therefore intend not only to build functional, manmade photosynthetic assemblies, but also to co-encapsulate these in a protocell with a natural enzyme capable of transforming carbon dioxide into a useful chemical building block. This will provide a primitive but versatile, solar-powered 'protoalgae' into which a more sophisticated metabolism can be constructed. Beyond the academic study of biological systems and molecules that can be achieved through this work, there is also great potential to deliver programmable cell-like entities that can perform truly useful chemistry unachievable in large-scale industrial process. Therefore, we strongly believe this work to be of interest both for the fundamental exploration of biological engineering and for the construction of protocells for addressing industrial issues.

藻类是单细胞生物，利用阳光为其新陈代谢提供动力，并将大气中的二氧化碳转化为有用的碳水化合物。像植物一样，它们拥有复杂的光合作用机制，能够有效地捕获光能并将其转化为一种生物电。这种电流流经嵌入蛋白质中的电路，蛋白质是由氨基酸线性链构成的生物分子，采用由氨基酸序列决定的复杂 3D 结构。这些蛋白质中还含有其他类型的生物衍生分子，这些分子赋予捕获光和形成电路所需的特定功能。由于我们现在对原子水平上的光合作用机制有了良好的、有效的理解，因此可以考虑这个过程中的关键步骤，并将它们纳入全新的人造蛋白质或重新设计的天然蛋白质中；因此，光合作用过程可以在更简单的、按比例缩小的系统中重现。因此，我们选择了人造和天然蛋白质作为人工光合作用途径中的功能构建块，这将使我们不仅能够操作简单的光合作用过程，而且能够将其封装在称为原始细胞的基本细胞样组件中。这些实体的设计目的是促进功能性生物和人工成分在一个非常简单的隔室中的输入，就像活的细菌细胞一样。目前，由于这些原始细胞的信息存储能力有限或没有信息存储能力，它们无法进化或主动繁殖，它们充当了我们测试对复杂生物分子和系统的理解的安全平台，同时使我们能够探索地球生命起源的各个方面。原始细胞还可以对蛋白质等生物分子表现出不寻常的影响，增加酶（能够进行化学反应的蛋白质）的速率，并提供蛋白质和酶进化环境的有用传真。因此，我们不仅打算构建功能性的人造光合组件，而且还将它们与能够将二氧化碳转化为有用的化学构件的天然酶共同封装在原始细胞中。这将提供一种原始但多功能的太阳能“原藻”，可以在其中构建更复杂的新陈代谢。除了通过这项工作可以实现的生物系统和分子的学术研究之外，还有提供可编程类细胞实体的巨大潜力，这些实体可以执行大规模工业过程中无法实现的真正有用的化学反应。因此，我们坚信这项工作对于生物工程的基础探索和构建解决工业问题的原始细胞都很有意义。

项目成果

An expandable, modular de novo protein platform for precision redox engineering.

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306046120
• 发表时间: 2023-08
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Hutchins, George H.;Noble, Claire E. M.;Bunzel, H. Adrian;Williams, Christopher;Dubiel, Paulina;Yadav, Sathish K. N.;Molinaro, Paul M.;Barringer, Rob;Blackburn, Hector;Hardy, Benjamin J.;Parnell, Alice E.;Landau, Charles;Race, Paul R.;Oliver, Thomas A. A.;Koder, Ronald L.;Crump, Matthew P.;Schaffitzel, Christiane;Oliveira, A. Sofia F.;Mulholland, Adrian J.;Anderson, J. L. Ross
• 通讯作者: Anderson, J. L. Ross

Construction and in vivo assembly of a catalytically proficient and hyperthermostable de novo enzyme.

催化熟练且可超过的从头酶的结构和体内组装。

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00541-4
• 发表时间: 2017-08-25
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Watkins DW;Jenkins JMX;Grayson KJ;Wood N;Steventon JW;Le Vay KK;Goodwin MI;Mullen AS;Bailey HJ;Crump MP;MacMillan F;Mulholland AJ;Cameron G;Sessions RB;Mann S;Anderson JLR
• 通讯作者: Anderson JLR

Designed for life: biocompatible de novo designed proteins and components.

专为生命设计：生物相容性的从头设计的蛋白质和成分。

• DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0472
• 发表时间: 2018-08
• 期刊: Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
• 作者: Grayson KJ;Anderson JLR
• 通讯作者: Anderson JLR

The ascent of man(made oxidoreductases).

• DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.04.008
• 发表时间: 2018-08
• 期刊: Current opinion in structural biology
• 影响因子: 6.8
• 作者: Grayson KJ;Anderson JR
• 通讯作者: Anderson JR