A synthetic biology approach to enhancing chemical production by anaerobic bacteria (SynBio-AnOx)

目前，电力、燃料和化学品主要由石油、天然气和煤炭制成，这些能源将变得越来越昂贵，最终耗尽。消耗这些化石碳源也会将二氧化碳释放到大气和海洋中，对环境和气候产生不利影响。我们需要新的可持续技术来发电，为我们的房屋供暖，为我们的车辆提供动力，并制造各种产品和行业所需的化学品。微生物发酵是一项重要的技术，它涉及到在没有氧气的情况下，酵母或细菌将糖转化为酒精或其他化学物质。发酵已经在面包、酒精饮料和乳制品的生产中使用了几个世纪。利用包括基因改造在内的现代技术，现在可以开发新的发酵工艺，其中微生物将原料（糖，淀粉或作物废料）转化为有用的燃料和化学品，这些燃料和化学品通常由石油制成。这些过程可以以可持续的方式运行，并可能成为碳中性经济的一部分。该研究方案的总体目标是生产可用于开发新的发酵过程的细菌菌株和知识，以可持续地制造化学品。先前关于改进发酵菌株的研究在兼性厌氧菌方面取得了最大进展，兼性厌氧菌是能够在存在或不存在氧气的情况下生长的生物体。该方案的目的是在改进严格的技术方面取得类似的进展。（专性）厌氧菌，这是一种只在无氧条件下生长的生物体，因为一些严格的厌氧菌对化学品的可持续生产具有有用的特性。在本研究计划结束时，我们的目标是生产一种或多种严格厌氧细菌丙酮丁醇梭菌的新菌株，高效可靠地将原料转化为有用的化学品丁醇，而不会产生副产品。为了实现这些目标，我们将使用和开发一个新的科学和工程领域的技术，称为合成生物学。我们将开发微调和测量丙酮丁醇梭菌中基因表达的方法，以及增加、减少和以其他方式修饰选定基因表达的新方法。这些新技术将使我们能够取得使用以前方法不可能取得的进展。如果成功，我们将与一家英国公司合作，测试新菌株的商业用途的适用性。这项研究有几个潜在的应用和好处。新的细菌菌株可以直接或间接地改善微生物制造丁醇的工业过程，丁醇是一种有价值的化学品和优良的燃料。世界领先的微生物丁醇制造公司之一位于英国，因此这项研究可能会为英国带来就业机会，并为英国经济和财富做出其他贡献。更广泛地说，这项研究所产生的知识应该有助于研究人员和公司开发新的发酵工艺，以可持续地生产其他化学品。

Electricity, fuels and chemicals are at present mostly made from oil, gas and coal, which will become increasingly expensive and eventually run out. Consuming these fossil carbon sources also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and oceans, adversely affecting the environment and climate. New, sustainable technologies are needed to generate electricity, heat our homes, power our vehicles, and make the chemicals needed in all kinds of products and industries. Developing and adopting these technologies is important for our well-being, economic prosperity and security.Microbial fermentation is an important technology, involving the conversion of sugars to alcohol or other chemicals by yeast or bacteria in the absence of oxygen. Fermentation has been used for centuries in the production of bread, alcoholic drinks, and dairy products. Using modern techniques including genetic modification, it is now possible to develop new fermentation processes in which microbes convert feedstocks (sugars, starch or crop waste) into useful fuels and chemicals that are conventionally made from oil. These processes can be operated in a sustainable way, and could be part of a carbon-neutral economy.The overall aim of this research programme is to produce bacterial strains and knowledge useful in the development of new fermentation processes for the sustainable manufacture of chemicals. Previous research on improving fermentation strains has made the best progress with facultative anaerobes, which are organisms able to grow either in the presence or absence of oxygen. This programme aims to make similar progress in techniques for improving strict (obligate) anaerobes, which are organisms that only grow in the absence of oxygen, because some strict anaerobes have useful properties for the sustainable manufacture of chemicals.By the end of this research programme we aim to produce one or more new strains of the strictly anaerobic bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum that continuously, efficiently and reliably convert feedstocks to the useful chemical butanol, without making by-products.To achieve these aims, we will use and develop techniques from a new area of science and engineering called synthetic biology. We will develop methods to fine-tune and measure gene expression in Clostridium acetobutylicum, and new approaches to increase, decrease and otherwise modify the expression of selected genes. These new techniques will allow us to make progress that would not be possible using previous approaches.If successful, we will work with a UK company to test the suitability of the new bacterial strains for commercial use.This research has several potential applications and benefits. The new bacterial strains could directly or indirectly lead to improved industrial processes for the microbial manufacture of butanol, which is a valuable chemical and an excellent fuel. One of the world's leading microbial butanol manufacturing companies is based in the UK, so this research could lead to UK jobs and other contributions to the UK economy and UK wealth. More broadly, the knowledge produced by this research should help researchers and companies develop new fermentation processes for the sustainable manufacture of other chemicals.