E. Coli Becomes An Autotroph (IMAGE)

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E. Coli Becomes An Autotroph

Caption

This diagram shows how researchers converted a common laboratory sugar eating (heterotrophic) E. coli bacterium (left) to produce all of its biomass from CO2 (autotrophic) by metabolic engineering combined with laboratory evolution. The new bacterium (center) uses the compound formate as a form of chemical energy to drive CO2 fixation by a synthetic metabolic pathway. The bacterium may provide the infrastructure for future industrial renewable production of food and green fuels (right).

Credit

Gleizer et al.

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