In microbial fermentative production, ATP regeneration, while crucial for cellular processes, conflicts with efficient target chemical production because ATP regeneration exhausts essential carbon sources also required for target chemical biosynthesis. To wrestle with this dilemma, we harnessed the power of microbial rhodopsins with light-driven proton pumping activity to supplement with ATP, thereby facilitating the bioproduction of various chemicals. We first demonstrated a photo-driven ATP supply and redistribution of metabolic carbon flows to target chemical synthesis by installing already-known delta rhodopsin (dR) in Escherichia coli. In addition, we identified novel rhodopsins with higher proton pumping activities than dR, and created an engineered cell for in vivo self-supply of the rhodopsin-activator, all-trans-retinal. Our concept exploiting the light-powering ATP supplier offers a potential increase in carbon use efficiency for microbial productions through metabolic reprogramming.

在微生物发酵生产中，ATP 再生虽然对细胞过程至关重要，但与有效的目标化学生产相冲突，因为 ATP 再生耗尽了目标化学生物合成所需的基本碳源。为了解决这一难题，我们利用具有光驱动质子泵活性的微生物视紫红质的力量来补充 ATP，从而促进各种化学物质的生物生产。我们首先通过在大肠杆菌中安装已知的 delta 视紫红质 (dR)，展示了光驱动的 ATP 供应和代谢碳流的重新分配以靶向化学合成。此外，我们鉴定了比 dR 具有更高质子泵活性的新型视紫红质，并创建了一种用于体内的工程细胞视紫红质激活剂的自我供应，全反式视黄醛。我们利用光能 ATP 供应商的概念通过代谢重编程为微生物生产提供了碳利用效率的潜在提高。