Metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for ethanol production
Abstract
Development of renewable energy is rapidly being embraced by our society and industry to achieve the nation's economic growth goals and to help address the world's energy and global warming crises. Currently most of the bioethanol production is from the fermentation of agricultural crops and residues. There is much debate concerning the cost effectiveness and energy efficiency of such biomass based ethanol production processes. Here, we report the creation of a Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 strain that can photoautotrophically convert CO2 to bioethanol. Transformation was performed using a double homologous recombination system to integrate the pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) and alcohol dehydrogenase II (adh) genes from obligately ethanol producing Zymomonas mobilis into the Synechocystis PCC 6803 chromosome under the control of the strong, light driven psbAII promoter. PCR based assay and ethanol production assay were used to screen for stable transformants. A computerized photobioreactor system was established for the experimental design and data acquisition for the analysis of the cyanobacterial cell cultures and ethanol production. The system described here shows an average yield of 5.2 mmol OD730 unit−1 litre−1 day−1 with no required antibiotic/selective agent.
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Expressing the same genes in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under the psbAII promoter increased ethanol production to 5.2 mmol OD730 unit−1 liter−1 day−1.
“This strain showed an increase in ethanol production reaching 5.2 mmol OD730 unit−1. liter−1. day−1) (Dexter and Fu 2009).”
From Renewable energy from Cyanobacteria: energy production optimization by metabolic pathway engineering (2011) · cites this paper as Dexter and Fu 2009
In fourth-generation biofuel processes focusing on genetically optimized cyanobacteria, production of ethanol, butanol, isobutanol, and modified fatty acids has been realized successfully.
“In fourth-generation biofuel processes that focus on genetically optimized cyanobacteria, the production of ethanol, as well as other fuel products such as butanol, isobutanol, and modified fatty acids have been realized successfully [75,76].”
From The potential of biofuels from first to fourth generation (2023) · cites this paper as [76]
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- Authors
- Dexter, J., & Fu, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- China University of Petroleum, Beijing (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Fu, Pengcheng
- Venue
- Energy & Environmental Science
- Publisher
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
- Published
- 2009
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 857
- ISSN
- 1754-5692 (ISSN-L)
- 1754-5706
- OpenAlex
- W1985426665
- Cited by
- 329
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 6.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Energy & Environmental Science (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Arizona State University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Biofuel production and bioconversion
- Keywords
- cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, bioethanol production, metabolic engineering, pyruvate decarboxylase, Zymomonas mobilis, homologous recombination, photobioreactors, renewable energy
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