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Team:UT-Tokyo
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iGEM UT-Tokyo aim to improve Escherichia coli's intrinsic '''hydrogen synthesis pathway''' by transgenics and to make E.coli produces hydrogen more efficiently with a view of using it as an energy source.
Sweetaholic Energy Generator:
Hydrogen Production from Sugar-rich Waste by E.coli
Today, large quantities of food and drink are dumped without being reused. In them, there are many sugar-rich foods and beverages which contain much glucose, or energy. However, they are too wet for us to use as energy by burning.
Our project aims to reuse such nutritious garbage by Escherichia coli digesting glucose to synthesize hydrogen, which is expected to be used in various useful ways, such as in the fuel cell.
E. coli cells have intrinsic metabolic system related to synthesis of hydrogen from glucose via formic acid. We are trying to improve the latter part of this metabolic system, formic acid-hydrogen pathway, by overexpressing the gene which controls this pathway. If we are successful, what we have to do for getting energy is to share our sweets or juice with E. coli cells.
Project Description
iGEM UT-Tokyo aim to improve Escherichia coli's intrinsic hydrogen synthesis pathway by transgenics and to make E.coli produces hydrogen more efficiently with a view of using it as an energy source.
From burning hydrogen, only water besides energy is produced. So, hydrogen is expected to be an environmentally-friendly energy source, replacing fossil fuels, which are seriously estimated to be exhausted in several hundred years. However, chemical methods of hydrogen synthesis have not been put to practical use, because of its high energy costs. Use of biological methods of hydrogen production should significantly reduce energy costs, as biological methods do not require extensive heating. E.coli has an ability to produce hydrogen from glucose, via an intrinsic metabolic pathway. Hydrogen can be amassed from E.coli cells cultivated in a closed anaerobic system. However, they produce too little hydrogen to use practically. We are trying to solve this problem by regulating the hydrogen consumption pathway and by enhancing the hydrogen synthetic pathway, for E.coli to produce more hydrogen.
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