Motivation of Hydrogenase
Fig. 1The reversible oxidation of molecular hydrogen.
Hydrogenase is an enzyme that catalyses the reversible oxidation of molecular hydrogen (H2). (Figure1) Hydrogenase can be sub-classified into three different types based on the active site metal content: iron-iron hydrogenase ([FeFe] hydrogenase), nickel-iron hydrogenase ([NiFe] hydrogenases), and iron hydrogenase. In contrast to [NiFe] hydrogenases, [FeFe] hydrogenases are generally more active in production of molecular hydrogen. Turnover frequency (TOF) in the order of 10,000 s−1 have been reported in literature for [FeFe] hydrogenases from Clostridium pasteurianum.[1] This has led to intense research focusing on the use of [FeFe] hydrogenase for sustainable production of H2.[2] Normal E. Coli bacteria contain [NiFe] hydrogenase, but the activity and expressive rate is non-obvious. For the above reasons, we decided to construct [FeFe] hydrogenases gene cluster for sustainable production of H2.>p>Hydrogenases
At molecular level, the gene sequences involved in producing hydrogenase in different species vary wildly. In our study, we focus on hydrogenase gene cluster from Clostridium. acetobutylicum. The important genes include hydA, hydEF, hydG, which are expressed as HydA, HydE and HydF, HydG respectively. We will briefly introduce these enzymes below.
HydA is the main catalytic unit, whereas the rest of the hyd genes are co-expressed to achieve a stable maturation of the final functional HydA.
HydE, as well as HydG have a radical-SAM motif. In most of the cases, these two enzymes might form a complex to fulfill their functions in helping the HydA mature.
HydF, whose N-termiatal domain is homoligous to the GTPase family and C-terminatal domain putatively contains a iron-sulfur center bingding motif CxHx45HCxxC,is considered to provide energy during the process.
HydF has an N-termiatal domain homologous to the GTPase family and C-terminatal domain putatively containing a iron-sulfur center binding motif CxHx45HCxxC, which is considered to provide energy during the process.
Our goal is to transplant the gene clusters of [FeFe]-hydrogenase from Clostridium. acetobutylicum into E. Coli, and produce a strain that could effectively produce hydrogen. This seemingly novel idea has been actually fulfilled by Yuki Honda, et al. [34] However, the methods and the result of gene manipulation was not efficient. They used the pETDuet-1+pCDFDuet-1 system to carry the hydEA and hydFG sequence separately. This method in cloning is not only laborious but also inefficient. Firstly, the expression of HydA, HydE, HydF, HydG are not controlled in a synchronized way; secondly, the two-plasmid system runs certain risk in the stability of the strain[4]. Thus to explore the strength of synthetic biology, we made certain improvements on the system from the level of gene manipulation.
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Reference
[1]Madden C, Vaughn MD, Díez-Pérez I, Brown KA, King PW, Gust D, Moore AL, Moore TA (January 2012). "Catalytic turnover of [FeFe]-hydrogenase based on single-molecule imaging". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 134 (3): 1577–82. doi:10.1021/ja207461t. PMID 21916466.
[2] Smith PR, Bingham AS, Swartz JR (2012). "Generation of hydrogen from NADPH using an [FeFe] hydrogenase". Int. J. Hydrogen Energy. 37: 2977–2983.
[3] Madden C, Vaughn MD, Díez-Pérez I, Brown KA, King PW, Gust D, Moore AL, Moore TA (January 2012). "Catalytic turnover of [FeFe]-hydrogenase based on single-molecule imaging". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 134 (3): 1577–82. doi:10.1021/ja207461t. PMID 21916466.]
[4] Honda, Y., Hagiwara, H., Ida, S., & Ishihara, T. (2016). Application to photocatalytic h 2, production of a whole-cell reaction by recombinant escherichia coli, cells expressing [fefe]-hydrogenase and maturases genes. Angewandte Chemie.
[5] Bieniossek, C., Nie, Y., Frey, D., Olieric, N., Schaffitzel, C., & Collinson, I., et al. (2009). Automated unrestricted multigene recombineering for multiprotein complex production. Nature Methods, 6(6), 447-450.
[6] King, P. W., Posewitz, M. C., Ghirardi, M. L., & Seibert, M. (2006). Functional studies of [fefe] hydrogenase maturation in an escherichia coli biosynthetic system. Journal of Bacteriology, 188(6), 2163-72.
[7] Cao Y, Bai X F. Progress in Research of Preparation of Loaded Nano-CdS and H_2 Production by Photocatalytic Decomposition of Water[J]. Imaging Science & Photochemistry, 2009, 27(3):225-232.
[8] Honda Y, Hagiwara H, Ida S, et al. Application to Photocatalytic H 2, Production of a Whole-Cell Reaction by Recombinant Escherichia coli, Cells Expressing [FeFe]-Hydrogenase and Maturases Genes[J]. Angewandte Chemie, 2016