One-carbon fixation via the synthetic reductive glycine pathway exceeds yield of the Calvin cycle
One-carbon feedstocks such as formate could be promising renewable substrates for sustainable microbial production of food, fuels and chemicals. Here we replace the native energy-inefficient Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle in Cupriavidus necator with the more energy-efficient reductive glycine pathway for growth on formate and CO<sub>2</sub>. In chemostats, our engineered strain reached a 17% higher biomass yield than the wild type and a yield higher than any natural formatotroph using the Calvin cycle. This shows the potential of synthetic metabolism to realize sustainable, bio-based production.
Authors
- Arren Bar‐Even (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1039-4328)
- Sara Benito-Vaquerizo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3936-9676)
- Timo Glatter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8716-8516)
- Helena Schulz-Mirbach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5376-9185)
- Enrico Orsi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4741-0344)
- Suzan Yilmaz
- Tobias J. Erb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3685-0894)
- Nico J. Claassens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1593-0377)
- Beau Dronsella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5541-3289)
Institutions
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (DE)
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (DE)
- Loewe Center for Synthetic Microbiology (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (DE)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Microbiology
- Published
- 2025-02-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-01941-9
- Citations
- 32
- Primary Topic
- Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 25.79
Funders
- Joachim Herz Stiftung
- Bosch-Forschungsstiftung
- Robert Bosch Stiftung
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft