Researchers have discovered a new pathway in bacteria that has the potential to decarbonize various industries. This breakthrough could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced during the production of fuels, drugs and chemicals. A joint research effort between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley has led to the creation of bacteria that can create unique carbon-based products. This breakthrough could open a promising path to the production of sustainable biochemicals.

The discovery, recently published in the journal Natureuses bacteria to integrate naturally occurring enzymatic reactions into a novel reaction known as the “carbene transfer reaction”. This research has the potential to reduce industrial emissions by providing sustainable alternatives to traditional chemical production methods that typically rely on fossil fuels.

“In this paper, we showed that in this reaction we can synthesize everything from natural enzymes to carbenes in a bacterial cell. “All you need to add is sugar and the cells will do the rest,” said Jay Keesling, the study’s principal investigator and CEO of the Department of Energy’s Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI).

Carbenes are highly active carbon-based chemicals that can be used in many different types of reactions. For decades, scientists have sought to use carbene reactions in drug discovery and synthesis, as well as in the manufacture of fuels and chemicals. However, these carbene treatments could only be done in small batches using test tubes and required expensive chemicals to drive the reaction.

In a new study, researchers replaced expensive chemical reagents with natural products that can be produced using an engineered strain of Streptomyces bacteria. “This work allows us to perform carbene chemistry without the toxic solvents or toxic gases typically used in chemical synthesis,” said first author Jing Huang, a researcher at the Berkeley Laboratory at Keesling. Lab. “This biological process is much safer for the environment than the current way of synthesizing chemicals,” Huang said. Said.

During experiments at JBEI, the researchers watched as the engineered bacterium metabolized and converted a sugar into a carbene precursor and an alkene substrate. The bacterium also expressed an enhanced P450 enzyme that uses these chemicals to produce cyclopropane, high-energy molecules that could potentially be used for the sustainable production of new bioactive compounds and advanced biofuels. “We can now perform these interesting reactions inside the bacterial cell. The cells produce all the reactants and cofactors, which means you can scale this reaction to very large scales,” said Kiesling.

Huang said recruiting bacteria to synthesize chemicals could also play an important role in reducing carbon emissions. According to other researchers at Berkeley Lab, about 50% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the production of chemicals, iron and steel, and cement. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will require a significant halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Huang said that although this fully integrated system can be envisioned for a large number of carbene donor molecules and alkene substrates, it is not yet ready for commercialization.

“For every new promotion, someone has to take the first step. And it may take years for you to succeed in science. But you have to keep trying – we can’t afford to give up. Huang, I hope our work inspires others to continue to find greener, more sustainable solutions for biomanufacturing. ” said.