Engineering a biotechnological microorganism for growth on one-carbon intermediates, produced from the abiotic activation of CO₂, is a key synthetic biology step towards the valorization of this greenhouse gas to commodity chemicals. Here we redesign the central carbon metabolism of the model bacterium Escherichia coli for growth on one-carbon compounds using the reductive glycine pathway. Sequential genomic introduction of the four metabolic modules of the synthetic pathway resulted in a strain capable of growth on formate and CO₂ with a doubling time of ~70 h and growth yield of ~1.5 g cell dry weight (gCDW) per mol-formate. Short-term evolution decreased doubling time to less than 8 h and improved biomass yield to 2.3 gCDW per mol-formate. Growth on methanol and CO₂ was achieved by further expression of a methanol dehydrogenase. Establishing synthetic formatotrophy and methylotrophy, as demonstrated here, paves the way for sustainable bioproduction rooted in CO₂ and renewable energy.

设计一种用于在单碳中间体上生长的生物技术微生物，该中间体由 CO ₂的非生物活化产生，是使这种温室气体增值为商品化学品的关键合成生物学步骤。在这里，我们重新设计了模型细菌大肠杆菌的中心碳代谢，以使用还原甘氨酸途径在单碳化合物上生长。合成途径的四个代谢模块的连续基因组引入导致菌株能够在甲酸和 CO _2上生长倍增时间约为 70 小时，每摩尔甲酸盐的生长产量约为 1.5 g 细胞干重 (gCDW)。短期进化将倍增时间减少到不到 8 小时，并将生物量产量提高到每摩尔甲酸 2.3 gCDW。通过进一步表达甲醇脱氢酶来实现在甲醇和CO _{2上的生长。正如这里所展示的，建立合成的格式营养和甲基营养，为植根于 CO 2}和可再生能源的可持续生物生产铺平了道路。