It was reported that by changing the genes of E. coli to give power generation capabilities, a power generation bacterium that can proliferate in factory wastewater containing large amounts of organic substances harmful to the environment was created.
The bacterium Shewanella oneidensis, discovered in Oneida Lake in New York in 1988, attracted attention for its ability to reduce and metabolize metals and generate electrical energy, but it requires specific chemicals to multiply, making it difficult to find applications. The difficulty is that the width is limited.
In a paper published in the academic journal Joule on September 8, 2023, a research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne announced that they had succeeded in acquiring the same developmental capabilities as Schwanella oneidensis by manipulating the genes of common E. coli.
The research team first changed the E. coli genome and added extracellular electron transfer EET, a metabolic process that transfers electrons from within the bacterial cell to the outside of the cell, to create an electromicroorganism with high power generation efficiency. It is said that E. coli with the power generation ability born in this way produced more than twice the power generation than existing bio-engineered E. coli, which only had a portion of the power generation ability of Schwanella oneidensis.
Regarding this, the research team explained that one of the important innovations in this study was the construction of a complete EET pathway in E. coli, and that they succeeded in creating an optimized pathway inside and outside the cell by integrating MR-1 components.
Of course, even if bacteria with the ability to develop are born, it is meaningless if they are delicate or require special food or require a large amount of energy to reproduce. Therefore, the research team conducted an experiment by collecting wastewater from a local beer brewery in Lausanne, Switzerland and introducing newly developed E. coli into it. Beer breweries use water to wash raw grains or tanks, but this wastewater contains a large amount of sugar, starch, and brewer’s yeast mixture, so if it flows down as is, undesirable microorganisms will grow, so it must be treated before being discharged. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the E. coli introduced by the research team multiplied in large quantities in the beer brewery wastewater. In contrast, Schwanella oneidensis could hardly reproduce in wastewater.
The research team said that rather than using energy to process organic waste, this is a system that kills two birds with one stone by processing organic waste and generating power at the same time. Testing with reclaimed wastewater from a Lausanne beer brewery showed that existing electric microorganisms could not survive, whereas bio-engineering microorganisms could not survive. It was revealed that the electric microorganisms that did this were able to multiply dramatically by using waste as food.
Areas where this research can be utilized are not limited to waste disposal. Because genetically engineered E. coli can develop from a variety of resources, a wide range of uses can be considered, including microbial fuel cells and biosensing. Related information: this placeYou can check it here.
