From waste to value: challenge to microbial production of organic compounds from CO2

Research Project

Project/Area Number	26740037
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Environmental engineering and reduction of environmental burden
Research Institution	National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Principal Investigator	Sato Yuya 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 環境管理研究部門, 研究員 (80711291)
Project Period (FY)	2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Keywords	物質生産 / 独立栄養性細菌 / CO2
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This study was aimed at microbial production of organic compounds from CO2. A common challenge of microbial production system is that microbial growth can be inhibited by starting the matter production. Therefore, I tried to control the timing of the production by fusing a key gene with a particular "promoter region" that can regulate the gene expression. As results, three genes, which are responsible for organic-compound production, fused with the promoter region were successfully introduced to a CO2-utilizing bacterium. Although the production test using the genetically modified bacteria was performed under various conditions, significant increase in productivity was not observed. On the other hand, an efficient method for gene introduction into this bacterium was developed through this study; Further, a unique defense enzyme was found and investigated.