Development of Escherichia coli for fuel cells that highly integrates useful functions for biofuel cells

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K06932
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biofunction/Bioprocess
• Research Institution: Osaka City University
• Principal Investigator: Azuma Masayuki 大阪市立大学, 大学院工学研究科, 教授 (20285282)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 尾島 由紘 大阪市立大学, 大学院工学研究科, 准教授 (20546957)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: バイオ燃料電池 / 微生物燃料電池 / 微生物触媒 / 大腸菌

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In recent years, with the improvement of the performance of biofuel cells, its practical application is strongly expected. In this research, improvement of the microbial catalyst, which is the key point of its development, was promoted. Specifically, using Escherichia coli, which is a model organism, as a catalyst, useful functions were highly integrated using a chromosome modification technique. We focused on mutations in genes involved in the central metabolic pathway of glucose used as fuel. From among these, we found a mutation that leads to an improvement in performance, constructed a strain with 5 gene defects (Δ5) by stacking them, and succeeded in improving the power and coulombic efficiency. We also found a new candidate mutation by evaluating the relationship between performance and the defects of genes related to the functions of the inner and outer membranes. In the future, improvement is expected from the elucidation of the part of Δ5 that limits power generation.

Free Research Field

生物工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

微生物燃料電池（MFC）に関する研究は、廃水や廃棄物からの発電と廃棄物の減容や、木質系バイオマスを燃料にした地産地消の再生可能エネルギー開発などにも繋がり、社会的にも重要な課題でもある。また、MFCは有機物から細胞内の代謝を介して電子を取りだす装置であり、微生物触媒に関する研究は「細胞内での電子生成および電子伝達メカニズムの理解」「電子の生成や流れを人為的に制御する手法の確立」などに関わり、生命現象を電子の流れで理解し応用展開する新たな「電子生命工学分野」の発展にも貢献する。また、電子の供給から物質生産性を高める電気培養分野にも有益な情報を提供するなど、学術的にも意義深い研究である。