Endowing biotechnological platform organisms with new carbon assimilation pathways is a key challenge for industrial biotechnology. Here we report progress toward the construction of formatotrophic Escherichia coli strains. Glycine and serine, universal precursors of one-carbon compounds oxidized during heterotrophic growth, are produced from formate and CO₂ through a reductive route. An adaptive evolution strategy was applied to optimize the enzymatic steps of this route in appropriate selection strains. Metabolic labeling experiments with ¹³C-formate confirm the redirected carbon-flow. These results demonstrate the high plasticity of the central carbon metabolism of E. coli and the applicative potential of directed evolution for implementing synthetic pathways in microorganisms.

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通过定向进化在大肠杆菌中还原一碳同化途径的实现

为生物技术平台生物赋予新的碳同化途径是工业生物技术面临的主要挑战。在这里，我们报告了向营养型大肠埃希氏菌菌株的建设进展。甘氨酸和丝氨酸是在异养生长过程中被氧化的一碳化合物的通用前体，是通过还原途径由甲酸盐和CO ₂产生的。应用了适应性进化策略，以在适当的选择菌株中优化该途径的酶促步骤。¹³ C-甲酸酯的代谢标记实验证实了重定向的碳流。这些结果证明了大肠杆菌的中央碳代谢具有很高的可塑性。 以及定向进化在微生物中实现合成途径的应用潜力。