Engineering of a microbial platform for the conversion of light energy into chemical and electrical energy

设计一个将光能转化为化学和电能的微生物平台Claudia M Schmidt-Dannert University of Minnerota-Twin Cities CBET-0756296获取和转化丰富的太阳能的智力价值将对可持续的未来生物技术的发展至关重要。光合作用主要通过传统的农业或林业生产系统用于生产生物燃料，尽管越来越多的努力针对发展微生物光合作用来生产生物氢。然而，光能也可能被用于驱动所需的能量要求的代谢过程或在工程细胞中产生电力。这可以通过对光合作用微生物细胞进行代谢工程来实现，从而将光能转化为所需的代谢输出或电力；或者通过安装光转换光化学反应中心(RC)，将光自养生物的光化学反应中心(RC)安装到具有所需的灵活的代谢能力和/或发电能力的细胞中。因此，该项目将对微生物生物化学和生物技术领域产生影响。这些发现可能会促进旨在将光合作用成分与微生物细胞中的代谢过程连接起来的更多工程努力。该项目还将为两名研究生和一名博士后研究员提供生物化学、微生物和电气工程方面的跨学科培训。此外，预计2-4名本科生将免费参加。首席研究人员实验室在吸引少数族裔女性学生进行有指导意义的研究项目方面有着良好的记录。

Engineering of a Microbial Platform for the Conversion of Light Energy into Chemical and Electrical EnergyClaudia M Schmidt-Dannert University of Minnesota-Twin CitiesCBET-0756296Intellectual Merit Capture and conversion of abundant solar energy will be essential for the development of sustainable, future biotechnologies. Photosynthesis is used for the production of biofuels mostly via traditional agricultural or forestry production systems, although efforts are increasingly directed at developing microbial photosynthesis for biohydrogen production. However, light-energy could potentially also be used to drive desirable energy demanding metabolic processes or the generation of electricity in engineered cells. This can be achieved by either metabolically engineering photosynthetic microbial cells such that light-energy can be channeled into desired metabolic outputs or electricity; or by installing lightconverting photochemical reaction centers (RC's) from photoautotrophic organisms into cells that have desired and flexible metabolic capabilities and/or ability to generate electricity.Broader Impact: This project will explore mechanisms by which abundant light-energy can be utilized to drive metabolic processes and electricity generation in engineered microbial cells. As such this project will impact the field of microbial biochemistry and biotechnology. Findings may promote additional engineering efforts aimed at interfacing photosynthetic components with metabolic processes in microbial cells. This project will also provide interdisciplinary training in biochemistry, microbial and electrical engineering for two graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher. In addition, 2-4 undergraduate students are anticipated to participate at no additional costs. The Principal Investigators' laboratories have a strong track record of attracting female minority students to conduct directed research projects.