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Updated: Aug 6, 2025

Assembly and Quantification of Co-Cultures Combining Heterotrophic Yeast with Phototrophic Sugar-Secreting Cyanobacteria
Published on: December 27, 2024
Solar-powered multi-organism symbiont mimic system for beyond natural synthesis of polypeptides from CO2 and N2
Wen Yu1,2, Yue Zeng1, Zenghao Wang1,2
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Developing artificial symbionts beyond natural synthesis limitations would bring revolutionary contributions to agriculture, medicine, environment, etc. Here, we initiated a solar-driven multi-organism symbiont, which was assembled by the CO2 fixation module of Synechocystis sp., N2 fixation module of Rhodopseudomonas palustris, biofunctional polypeptides synthesis module of Bacillus licheniformis, and the electron transfer module of conductive cationic poly(fluorene-co-phenylene) derivative. The modular design broke the pathway to synthesize γ-polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA) using CO2 and N2, attributing to the artificially constructed direct interspecific substance and electron transfer. So, the intracellular ATP and NADPH were enhanced by 69 and 30%, respectively, and the produced γ-PGA was enhanced by 104%. The strategy was further extended to produce a commercial antibiotic of bacitracin A. These achievements improve the selectivity and yield of functional polypeptides with one click by CO2 and N2, and also provide an innovative strategy for creating photosynthetic systems on demand.
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