The synthetic POAP cycle is synthetic. Credit: Imcas.
Scientists from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reported a minimized synthetic carbon fixation cycle. The cycle only contains four biochemical reactions and is capable of converting carbon dioxide into one molecule of oxalate in each round. The study was published in a journal.
One of the major contributors to climate change is the increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Plants andMicrobes fix carbon dioxide in nature. The crotonyl-CoA/ethylmalonyl-CoA/hydroxybutyryl-CoA (CETCH) cycle and the artificial starch pathway have been reported in recent years. These pathways usually contain more than 10 reactions.
The large number of reactions may affect the efficiency of the pathway. Scientists wondered if it was possible to reduce the number of reactions required for a carbon fixation cycle.
Scientists at the Institute for Computational Sciences designed a minimized synthetic carbon fixation cycle based on the calculations of enzymatic reactions. This synthetic cycle contains only four reactions and the four enzymes involved are pyruvate carboxylase (PYC), oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase (OAH), acetate-CoA ligase (ACS) and pyruvate synthase (PFOR).
The most challenging reaction was the carboxylation of PFOR. PFOR is usually involved in the decarboxylation of pyruvate. The reaction must be driven by an electron donor. The electron donor was Ferredoxin. A ferredoxin from Hydrogenobacter thermophiles was found to efficiently drive the carboxylation of PFOR from Clostridium thermocellum. The construction of the POAP cycle was screened for PYC, OAH and ACS.
Four reactions were divided into two cascades, and the carbon fixation efficiency was tested under anaerobic conditions using 13C-labeled NaHCO3. The 13C-labeled oxalate was detected by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. The total turnover number was 5mol/mol and the CO2 fixation rate was 8.0 1.8 nmol.
The POAP cycle can provide a novel model for understanding and investigating CO2 fixation in ancient organisms because of its high temperature and anaerobic conditions. The POAP cycle can be used to convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals.
A Minimized Synthetic Carbon Fixation Cycle is a paper written by Lu Xiao. The book is titled "acscatal.1c04151."
The journal has information about catalysis.
Scientists design and construct minimized synthetic carbon fixation cycle in December of 2021.
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