Altered Carbon Partitioning Enhances CO2 to Terpene Conversion in Cyanobacteria
Open accessAbstract
Photosynthetic terpene production represents one of the most carbon and energy-efficient routes for converting CO2 into hydrocarbon. In photosynthetic organisms, metabolic engineering has led to limited success in enhancing terpene productivity, partially due to the low carbon partitioning. In this study, we employed systems biology analysis to reveal the strong competition for carbon substrates between primary metabolism (e.g., sucrose, glycogen, and protein synthesis) and terpene biosynthesis in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. We then engineered key “source” and “sink” enzymes. The “source” limitation was overcome by knocking out either sucrose or glycogen biosynthesis to significantly enhance limonene production via altered carbon partitioning. Moreover, a fusion enzyme complex with geranyl diphosphate synthase (GPPS) and limonene synthase (LS) was designed to further improve pathway kinetics and substrate channeling. The synergy between “source” and “sink” achieved a limonene titer of 21.0 mg/L. Overall, the study demonstrates that balancing carbon flux between primary and secondary metabolism can be an effective approach to enhance terpene bioproduction in cyanobacteria. The design of “source” and “sink” synergy has significant potential in improving natural product yield in photosynthetic species.
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In cyanobacteria, carbon fixed through the Calvin cycle is typically allocated toward biomass production, including carbohydrate synthesis, amino acid formation, and cellular maintenance.
“In cyanobacteria, carbon fixed through the Calvin cycle is typically allocated toward biomass production, including carbohydrate synthesis, amino acid formation, and cellular maintenance [170].”
From Cyanobacteria as a Photosynthetic Chassis for Metabolic Pathway Engineering with Heterologous Gene Expression (2026) · cites this paper as [170]
The Discussion (section 4) describes carbon partitioning into primary metabolism, including amino acid and carbohydrate biosynthesis. The Results (section 3.2) link an amino-acid precursor to the Calvin–Benson cycle and report photosynthate partitioning toward storage carbon. The paper does not establish the broader claim that Calvin-cycle carbon is typically allocated toward biomass production, including cellular maintenance. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Li, M., Long, B., Dai, S. Y., Golden, J. W., Wang, X., & Yuan, J. S.
- Affiliations
- Guangdong Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Miami University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Xin
- Yuan, Joshua S.
- Venue
- BioDesign Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022
- Volume
- 2022
- Pages
- 9897425
- ISSN
- 2693-1257 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10521692
- OpenAlex
- W4211195938
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BioDesign Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- China Scholarship Council
- Texas A&M University
- Texas A&M AgriLife Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Keywords
- carbon allocation, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, sucrose synthesis, glycogen synthesis, geranyl diphosphate synthase, limonene synthase, fusion enzyme, substrate channeling, primary and secondary metabolism, metabolic engineering, CO2 conversion
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