Employment of light-inducible promoter in genetically engineered cyanobacteria for photosynthetic isobutanol production with simulated diurnal sunlight and CO2
Abstract
Cyanobacteria are oxygen-evolving prokaryotes that can be engineered for biofuel production from solar energy, CO 2, and water. Isobutanol (IB) has the potential to serve as an alternative fuel and important chemical feedstock. The research involves engineering Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, for photosynthetic isobutanol production via the 2-keto-acid pathway and their cultivation in lab-scale photobioreactors. This synthetic pathway involves the heterologous expression of two enzymes, α-ketoisovalerate decarboxylase (Kivd) and alcohol dehydrogenase (Yqhd), under a strong light-inducible promotor, psbA2, known to show increased gene expression under high light. The use of psbA2 could be a valuable strategy for isobutanol production as economic scaling up demands the utilization of natural sunlight, which also provides very high light intensity at midday, facilitating increased production. The study reports isobutanol production from engineered strains containing both pathway genes and with only kivd. In shake flask studies, the highest isobutanol titre of 75 mg L-1 (12th day) was achieved from an engineered strain DM12 under optimized light intensity. DM12 was cultivated in a 2 L flat panel photobioreactor, resulting in a maximum isobutanol titre of 371.8 mg L-1 (10th day) with 2 % CO 2 and 200 μmol photons m-2 s-1. Cultivation of DM12 in a photobioreactor under mimic diurnal sunlight demonstrated the highest productivity of 39 mg L-1 day-1 with the maximum titre of 308.5 mg L-1 (9th day). This work lays the foundation for sustainable, large-scale biobutanol production using solar energy.
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Notable examples include Pcpc560, derived from the phycocyanin operon, and PpsbA2, associated with photosystem II genes, both of which are widely used to drive gene expression in cyanobacterial systems.
“Notable examples include Pcpc560, derived from the phycocyanin operon, and PpsbA2, associated with photosystem II genes, both of which are widely used to drive gene expression in cyanobacterial systems [99].”
From Cyanobacteria as a Photosynthetic Chassis for Metabolic Pathway Engineering with Heterologous Gene Expression (2026) · cites this paper as [99]
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- Authors
- Das, M., & Maiti, S. K.
- Affiliations
- Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Maiti, Soumen K.
- ORCID
- Maiti, Soumen K.
- Venue
- Journal of Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-09
- Volume
- 393
- Pages
- 31-40
- ISSN
- 0168-1656 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4400880216
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 1.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Biotechnology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Keywords
- isobutanol production, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, light-inducible promoter, alcohol dehydrogenase, photobioreactor cultivation, CO2 fixation, biofuel production, heterologous expression
- MeSH terms
- Butanols, Bacterial Proteins, Carbon Dioxide, Genetic Engineering, Light, Photosynthesis, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Sunlight, Synechocystis, Biofuels, Photobioreactors, Metabolic Engineering
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