Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast factory construction for formate bioconversion

Abstract

The photosynthetic autotrophic production of microalgae is limited by the effective supply of carbon and light energy, and the production efficiency is lower than the theoretical value. Represented by methanol, C1 compounds have been industrially produced by artificial photosynthesis with a solar energy efficiency over 10%, but the complexity of artificial products is weak. Here, based on a construction of chloroplast factory, green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii CC137c was modified for the bioconversion of formate for biomass production. By screening the optimal combination of chloroplast transport peptides, the cabII-1 cTP1 fusion formate dehydrogenase showed significant enhancement on the conversion of formate with a better performance in the maintenance of light reaction activity. This work provided a new way to obtain bioproducts from solar energy and CO₂ with potentially higher-than-nature efficiency by the artificial-natural hybrid photosynthesis.

Keywords: Artificial-natural hybrid photosynthesis; Bio-manufactory; Chloroplast transport peptide; Formate dehydrogenase; Solar energy.