Abstract
The conversion of carbon dioxide to formate is a fundamental step for building C1 chemical platforms. Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 was reported to show remarkable activity converting carbon dioxide into formate. Formate dehydrogenase 1 from M. extorquens AM1 (MeFDH1) was verified as the key responsible enzyme for the conversion of carbon dioxide to formate in this study. Using a 2% methanol concentration for induction, microbial harboring the recombinant MeFDH1 expressing plasmid produced the highest concentration of formate (26.6 mM within 21 hours) in electrochemical reactor. 60 μM of sodium tungstate in the culture medium was optimal for the expression of recombinant MeFDH1 and production of formate (25.7 mM within 21 hours). The recombinant MeFDH1 expressing cells showed maximum formate productivity of 2.53 mM/g-wet cell/hr, which was 2.5 times greater than that of wild type. Thus, M. extorquens AM1 was successfully engineered by expressing MeFDH1 as recombinant enzyme to elevate the production of formate from CO2 after elucidating key responsible enzyme for the conversion of CO2 to formate.
Highlights
The rapid development of a wide-range of industrial technologies using fossil fuel has led to drastically increased level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)[1]
Effective oxygen tolerant biocatalysts capable of utilizing electrons supplied from cathode have been sought to render biocatalytic formate production from CO2 feasible[18]
We clearly demonstrate that formate dehydrogenase 1 (MeFDH1), a heterodimeric protein composed of alpha and beta subunits, is the essential enzyme in formate synthesis from CO2 in M. extorquens AM1 cells
Summary
The rapid development of a wide-range of industrial technologies using fossil fuel has led to drastically increased level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)[1]. CO2 is a promising renewable source to produce environmentally friendly chemical platforms such as formate, dimethyl carbonate, its polymers and others[6]. Conventional conversion technologies for CO2 into valuable compounds harbor critical limitations such as harsh reaction conditions and requirements of rare precious metal catalysts and expensive reducing agents such as hydride and hydrogen[10,11]. Even though electro-catalysis of carbon dioxide is a promising alternative given relative low costs of electrical energy, some chemical electro-catalysts frequently demonstrate insufficient reaction selectivity during the conversion of carbon dioxide to formate due to the production of significant ratio of hydrogen gas as by-product[12]. Our group reported a new approach for the conversion of CO2 to formate through electro-catalysis using a whole-cell biocatalyst. Previous studies were focused on the optimization of reaction conditions such as electron mediators, cell mass concentration and pH value[19]
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