China Partnership on Synthetic Biology: Chemicals and fuels from waste gas using gas-eating Microbes

背景：工业和社会面临的最大挑战之一是未来可持续地利用非粮食资源生产化学品和燃料，同时减少温室气体(GHG)排放。因此，近年来，人们的注意力转向了生物发酵过程的使用。然而，为了与基于石化原料的现有燃料和化工制造工艺竞争，低成本原料是必不可少的，因为原料通常占总生产成本的60%。迄今为止，重点一直放在木质纤维生物质原料的使用上。然而，生物质的开发依赖于能源密集型的前处理步骤，以及此后添加昂贵的外源水解酶，以将部分解构的生物质转化为发酵过程生物所需的糖。所涉及的成本使经济进程的发展极具挑战性。一种令人兴奋的替代方案是使用废气作为原料。气体发酵微生物能够在非食品来源的一氧化碳/二氧化碳(CO/CO2)和甲烷(CH4)等C1化合物上生长，将这种低成本的碳转化为现代社会所需的化学品和燃料。幸运的是，C1气体是一种丰富的废物资源，而且可能是，例如来自工业的废气(例如钢铁制造、炼油、煤炭和天然气/页岩气)以及来自可持续资源的“合成气”(CO和H2)，例如生物质和家庭/农业废物。目的：诺丁汉SBRC与谢菲尔德和牛津布鲁克斯获得了与中国科学院合成生物学重点实验室(CAS)合作的为期4年的BBSRC-中国合作伙伴奖。这一合作伙伴关系旨在利用气体发酵生产化学产品。该伙伴关系将通过确定新的微生物底盘或对现有底盘进行改造来实施工艺改进，这些底盘在使用氯化合物作为原料方面更有效。策略：我们将探索一些底盘，并组装必要的工具(部件和模块)和策略，这些工具和策略可用于选定的微生物，以实现使用合成生物学方法形成产品的合成路线。我们首选的底盘将从一种被称为“乙酸菌”的细菌中挑选出来。许多路径已经可以通过SBRC以BioBrick格式提供，这些路径可以集成到所选的机箱中。除了合成气/合成气(一氧化碳和氢气)外，原料选择将包括甲醇。DTP学生将完全融入这一合作伙伴关系，并可以选择于2017年借调3个月到中国在上海的中科院研究所工作。培训：该翻译项目将在位于诺丁汉的BBSRC/EPSRC合成生物学研究中心(SBRC)内进行，该中心由90多名研究生和博士后研究人员组成(www.clostron.com/People ple.php)，目前预算为2700万GB。这项研究将允许在一个独特的多学科环境中进行培训，包括厌氧气体发酵、合成生物学、微生物生理学、代谢工程和计算机建模。该学生将有机会前往中国以及谢菲尔德和牛津大学，并在那里工作。

BACKGROUND: One of the greatest challenges facing industry and society is the future sustainable production of chemicals and fuels from non-food resources while at the same time reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. Accordingly, in recent years attention has turned to the use of bilogical fermentation processes. However, to compete with existing fuel and chemical manufacturing processes based on petrochemical derived raw materials, low cost feedstocks are essential, since the feedstock typically contributes to >60% of the overall production cost. To date, the focus has been on the use of lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The exploitation of biomass, however, is reliant on an energy intensive pre-treatment step, and thereafter, the addition of costly exogenous hydrolytic enzymes needed to convert the partially deconstructed biomass into the sugars needed by the fermentative process organisms. The costs involved are making the development of economic processes extremely challenging. An exciting alternative is to use waste gases as the feedstock. Gas fermenting microbes are able to grow on C1 compounds, such as carbon monoxide/dioxide (CO/ CO2) and methane (CH4) derived from non-food sources, converting this low cost carbon into the chemicals and fuels modern society needs. Fortunately, C1 gases are an abundant waste resource and may be, such as waste gases from industry (e.g. steel manufacturing, oil refining, coal and natural/shale gas) as well as 'synthesis gas' (CO and H2) produced from sustainable resources, such as biomass and domestic/ agricultural wastes. This enables the production of fuels and chemicals in any industrialized geography without the consumption of valuable food or land resources.AIM: SBRC Nottingham, together with Sheffield and Oxford Brookes, have been awarded a 4-year BBSRC-China partnership award with the Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Shanghai. The partnership aims to exploit gas fermentation to produce chemical commodities. The partnership will implement process improvements through the identification of new microbial chassis, or the modification of existing chassis, that are more effective in using C1 compounds as feedstocks. STRATEGY: We will explore a number of chassis and assemble the necessary tools (parts and modules) and strategies that can be used in the selected microbes to implement synthetic routes to product formation using synthetic biology approaches. Our preferred chassis will be selected from a class of bacteria known as 'acetogens'. A number of pathways are already available in biobrick format with the SBRC that can be incorporated into the selected chassis. Feedstock options will include methanol in addition to synthesis gas/ Syngas (CO and H2). The DTP studentship will become fully integrated in this partnership, and have the option of spending 3 months on secondment in China in 2017 at a CAS institute in Shanghai.THE TRAINING: This translational project will be carried out within the BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC) at Nottingham which comprises 90+ graduate and postdoctoral researchers (www.clostron.com/people.php) and a current budget of £27M. The study will allow for training in a unique multidisciplinary environment, incorporating anaerobic gas fermentation, Synthetic Biology, microbial physiology, metabolic engineering and computer modelling. The student will have the opportunity to travel to, and work in, CHINA, as well as in Sheffield and Oxford.