{"id":24956,"date":"2015-03-16T03:06:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T02:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=24956"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:46:53","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:46:53","slug":"semi-artificial-chloroplasts-to-manufacture-biotechnologically-relevant-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/semi-artificial-chloroplasts-to-manufacture-biotechnologically-relevant-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Semi-artificial chloroplasts to manufacture biotechnologically relevant products"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"fittosize_210_0_d26bd3ef558466d6854fdb087f4943a3_03_05_happe_cag_photobiotechnologie\"
Different Chlamydomonas strains are cultivated at RUB to analyse their photosynthetic performance. \u00a9 RUB, Foto: AG Photobiotechnologie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An international research team wants to create semi-artificial chloroplasts for the manufacture of biotechnologically relevant products. For this purpose, they aim to modify the photosynthetic process of natural chloroplasts. The EU is funding the undertaking with 1.2 million euros for the time period of three years, as part of \u201cERASynBio\u201d, an initiative striving to promote synthetic biology in Europe. Prof Dr Thomas Happe from the work group Photobiotechnology at the Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum is coordinating the \u201cSun2Chem\u201d project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Customised photosynthesis<\/h3>\n

During photosynthesis, plants use solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into chemical energy and biomass. They apply this process in order to generate biomass, i.e. new cellular building blocks. Photosynthesis is relevant, for example, for the production of biofuels. Following the same principle, it would also be possible to generate substances that are building-blocks for the industrial synthesis of drugs and other chemicals, such as alkanes. The researchers want to customise the semi-artificial chloroplasts in such a way that they would primarily generate products that are biotechnologically relevant and commercially viable. For this purpose, the RUB team headed by Thomas Happe collaborates with colleagues from the French research centre \u201cCEA Cadarache\u201d and the University of Oxford, UK.<\/p>\n

Modifying the chloroplasts\u2019 genetic make-up<\/h3>\n
\"fittosize_210_0_61816632c3f9e04864bc852ea0937ec5_03_05_happe_grafik_cag_photobiotechnologie\"
RUB researchers aim to re-route the light-driven electron-flow to produce less biomass and more specific products such as hydrogen or alkanes. \u00a9 RUB, Grafik: AG Photobiotechnologie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In natural chloroplasts, special protein complexes, so-called photosystems, absorb sunlight and generate high-energy electrons. A number of other proteins subsequently transport these electrons, until their energy is eventually utilised in reactions that result in the creation of new cellular building blocks. The \u201cSun2Chem\u201d project is striving to alter the genetic system of natural chloroplasts using synthetic biology tools. The constructed semi-artificial system would therefore contain modified proteins. Not only would this render the electron transport chain more efficient, it could also result in a new reaction where desirable products are generated, rather than cellular buildings blocks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact<\/h3>\n

Prof Dr Thomas Happe
\nAG Photobiotechnology
\nFaculty of Biology and Biotechnology at the Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t
\n44780 Bochum, Germany
\nphone: +49\/234\/32-27026
\nemail: thomas.happe@rub.de<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international research team wants to create semi-artificial chloroplasts for the manufacture of biotechnologically relevant products. For this purpose, they aim to modify the photosynthetic process of natural chloroplasts. The EU is funding the undertaking with 1.2 million euros for the time period of three years, as part of \u201cERASynBio\u201d, an initiative striving to promote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[],"supplier":[9433,5585,1806,2802],"class_list":["post-24956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","supplier-cea-cadarache","supplier-european-union","supplier-ruhr-universitaet-bochum","supplier-university-of-oxford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24956"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=24956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}