arrow
Return

Solar-Driven Methanogenesis through Microbial Ecosystem Engineering on Carbon Nitride

delete2024-10-29
delete0
delete
OA
AI
S
Shafeer Kalathil
M
Motiar Rahaman
E
Erwin Lam
T
Teresa L. Augustin
H
Heather F. Greer
E
Erwin Reisner *
DOI:10.1002/anie.202409192delete
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Semi-biological photosynthesis combines synthetic photosensitizers with microbial catalysts to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals from CO2. However, the inefficient transfer of photoexcited electrons to microbes leads to limited CO2 utilization, restricting the catalytic performance of such biohybrid assemblies. Here, we introduce a biological engineering solution to address the inherently sluggish electron uptake mechanism of a methanogen, Methanosarcina barkeri (M. barkeri), by coculturing it with an electron transport specialist, Geobacter sulfurreducens KN400 (KN400), an adapted strain rich with multiheme c-type cytochromes (c-Cyts) and electrically conductive protein filaments (e-PFs) made of polymerized c-Cyts with enhanced capacity for extracellular electron transfer (EET). Integration of this M. barkeri-KN400 co-culture with a synthetic photosensitizer, carbon nitride, demonstrates that c-Cyts and e-PFs, emanating from live KN400, transport photoexcited electrons efficiently from the carbon nitride to M. barkeri for methanogenesis with remarkable long-term stability and selectivity. The demonstrated cooperative interaction between two microbes via direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) and the photosensitizer to assemble a semi-biological photocatalyst introduces an ecosystem engineering strategy in solar chemistry to drive sustainable chemical reactions.
Keywords:
Methanogenesis
Electron-transfer
Solar fuels
Conductive protein filaments
Biohybrids

Journal

Angewandte Chemie-International Edition cover
Angewandte Chemie-International Edition
IF:
16.9
Papers:
5.6W
Citations:
53.0W

Organization

U
University of Cambridge
Scholars:
7.7W
Papers: 7.1W
Citations: 13.7W