2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Hydrogen production using nitrogenase driven by light energy

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23658097
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Applied biochemistry
Research Institution	Nihon University Junior College
Principal Investigator	SHIZAWA Yasuhiko 日本大学短期大学部, 生物資源学科, 講師 (30413131)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	ニトロゲナーゼ / 水素ガス / 光エネルギー
Research Abstract	Our research goal is the construction of hydrogen evolution system which is able to work by solar energy. We selected a bacterium whose name is Streptomyces thermoautotrophicus as an ideal candidate for this aim because of the features of its nitrogen reduction system. This bacterium normally grows with carbon monoxide as a sole carbon source at relatively high temperature, and also has a rather unique nitrogenase than generally known one. Since this nitrogenase functions in the severe environment; at relatively high temperature and under oxygen, it will be available for bioreactor. We decided to utilize this nitrogenase system as a recombinant protein synthesized in E.coli. The corresponding genes were chemically synthesized and cloned into the expression vector. This approach may allow us to build a foundation for the construction of solar energy dependent hydrogen evolution apparatus using this nitrogenase system.