Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 24th, by wire Question: From carbon dioxide to starch, what are the highlights of this synthetic technology, which is the first breakthrough in my country?
Xinhua News Agency reporters Dong Ruifeng, Mao Zhenhua, Wang Jinghuai
Using carbon dioxide as a raw material, without relying on plant photosynthesis, directly artificially synthesize starch-A scientific research team from the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the de novo synthesis of carbon dioxide to starch in the laboratory for the first time. The internationally renowned academic journal “Science” was published online.
What is the “gold content” of this breakthrough? Is it possible to “manufacture” food on a large scale through factories in the future? The reporter followed up with the interview and interpretation.
“A big step forward” breakthrough
In the laboratory of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers display artificially synthesized starch samples (photographed on September 16).Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang
Starch is the most important component of food, and it is also an important industrial raw material. Synthetic starch is a major topic in the field of science and technology, which has attracted scientists from many countries to explore in depth, but has not made any substantial and important breakthroughs.
Ma Yanhe, the corresponding author of the paper and director of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that in this study, researchers used a method similar to “building blocks” to design and construct an 11-step reaction of unnatural carbon dioxide fixation and artificial synthesis from scratch. A new way of starch. Nuclear magnetic resonance and other tests have found that the structural composition of synthetic starch molecules is consistent with that of natural starch molecules.
In contrast, starch synthesis in nature depends on plant photosynthesis, involving about 60 steps of metabolic reactions and complex physiological regulation.
Cai Tao, the first author of the paper and associate researcher at Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biology, introduced that preliminary laboratory tests have shown that the rate of synthetic starch is 8.5 times that of natural starch. Under the condition of sufficient energy supply, according to the current technical parameters, theoretically, the annual starch output of a 1 cubic meter bioreactor is equivalent to the annual starch output of my country’s 5 acres of corn land.
This breakthrough has been highly praised by a group of internationally renowned experts in this field. Manfred Reitz, academician of the German Academy of Sciences, said that fixing and converting carbon dioxide into useful organic chemicals is a major international challenge, and this work has taken a big step forward in the field of research. Jens Nielsen, a member of the American Academy of Engineering, said that this is an amazing case of using synthetic biology to solve a number of major challenges facing today’s society, and will pave the way for more related research in the future.
Chen Jian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that this work is a typical “0 to 1” original result. Kobe University Vice President Akihiko Kondo said that the results of this research will have a transformative impact on the next generation of biomanufacturing and agricultural development.
Open a window for the “cell factory”
Associate researcher Cai Tao, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, shows a sample of synthetic starch in the laboratory (photographed on September 16).Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang
From molecular biology to synthetic biology, scientific and technological progress has made the targeted transformation of enzymes increasingly mature, and they have been widely used in food production, vaccine development, agricultural pest control and other fields. In theory, most foods and petrochemicals can be made with the help of synthetic biology technology.
Do not rely on traditional agricultural planting, artificially “manufacture” food-aiming at the vision of “agricultural industrialization”, scientists from many countries have shown their skills and launched research.
“Opened a window for the future’cell factory’.” For the application prospects of this research, Cai Tao drew an analogy: the new reaction pathway of artificially synthesized starch is equivalent to a car engine, and yeast cells are equivalent to a car chassis. The first step is to put the engine on the chassis and install it, systematically design and modify the yeast cells, and build a starch synthesis “cell factory” for large-scale production.
However, before the hope of “cell factory” for food production is realized, scientists need to overcome multiple difficulties first.
“Our current understanding of many life processes is not yet in place.” Ma Yanhe said that building a “cell factory” in the future will face many basic scientific challenges such as the design, synthesis, and regulation of artificial life. It requires disciplines such as chemistry, physics, engineering, and biology. Long-term cross-study of studies.
In addition, to make synthetic starch more economically viable compared with agricultural planting, it also requires a difficult and continuous process of scientific and technological research.
Zhou Qi, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this achievement is still in the laboratory stage, and there is still a long way to go before practical application. It is necessary to realize the conversion from the concept of “0 to 1” to “1 to 10” as soon as possible.
Carry out basic research for major needs
Research team Qiao Jing, research assistant, Cai Tao, researcher Ma Yanhe, researcher Zhu Leilei, and research assistant Sun Hongbing (from left to right) in the laboratory of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (taken on September 16) .Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang
In the “14th Five-Year Plan” and the outline of long-term goals for 2035, synthetic biology has been specifically included in the field of scientific and technological frontier research.
It is understood that with the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biology is taking the lead in building the National Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Center. The next goal of the scientific research team is to continue to overcome the underlying scientific problems such as the design and control of the starch synthesis artificial biological system, and on the other hand to promote the results to industrial applications, so that the economic feasibility of artificial starch will be close to agricultural planting in the future.
“This is to carry out basic research on the bottleneck scientific and technological issues in the realization of major application goals.” Zhao Guoping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commented.
In the eyes of scientists, if artificial synthetic starch enters practical applications in the future, it will not only save arable land and freshwater resources, and further ensure food security, it will also bring a lot of imagination.
Kangle, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that if the carbon dioxide “grabbed” in the process of artificial starch synthesis is far more than the carbon dioxide emitted, it can further tap the potential and make greater contributions to carbon peak carbon neutralization.
For example, Yue Guojun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the intermediate products of synthetic starch, such as glucose, can be fermented to produce platform compounds such as alcohols, acids, and ketones, which are widely used in the production of plastics, fibers, and rubber.
“Refining scientific questions from the major needs of society and making important breakthroughs in answering scientific questions. This is the basic research we are going to do.” Zhou Qi said.