Fabricating an advanced electrogenic chassis by activating microbial metabolism and fine-tuning extracellular electron transfer

Yang-Yang Fan; Qiang Tang; Yang Li; Hong Sun; Meiying Xu; Han-Qing Yu

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.09.021

Fabricating an advanced electrogenic chassis by activating microbial metabolism and fine-tuning extracellular electron transfer

Trends Biotechnol. 2024 Oct 25:S0167-7799(24)00282-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.09.021. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yang-Yang Fan¹, Qiang Tang², Yang Li³, Hong Sun³, Meiying Xu⁴, Han-Qing Yu⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: qtang@ustc.edu.cn.
³ School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510070, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: hqyu@ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 39490224
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.09.021

Abstract

Exploiting electrogenic microorganisms as unconventional chassis hosts offers potential solutions to global energy and environmental challenges. However, their limited electrogenic efficiency and metabolic versatility, due to genetic and metabolic constraints, hinder broader applications. Herein, we developed a multifaceted approach to fabricate an enhanced electrogenic chassis, starting with streamlining the genome by removing extrachromosomal genetic material. This reduction led to faster lactate consumption, higher intracellular NADH/NAD⁺ and ATP/ADP levels, and increased growth and biomass accumulation, as well as promoted electrogenic activity. Transcriptome profiling showed an overall activation of cellular metabolism. We further established a molecular toolkit with a vector vehicle incorporating native replication block and refined promoter components for precise gene expression control. This enabled engineered primary metabolism for greater environmental robustness and fine-tuned extracellular electron transfer (EET) for improved efficiency. The enhanced chassis demonstrated substantially improved pollutant biodegradation and radionuclide removal, establishing a new paradigm for utilizing electrogenic organisms as novel biotechnology chassis.

Keywords: electrogenic chassis; fine-tuning of extracellular electron transfer; genome streamlining; metabolic activation; primary metabolism engineering.