Advances in the genetic modification of Rhodobacter sphaeroides to improve hydrogen production

Yiming Wang, Peng Zhou, Jin Tong and Rui Gao

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016, vol. 60, issue C, 1312-1318

Abstract: This review summarizes recent aspects of genetic modification of uptake hydrogenase and nitrogenase and light harvesting system, with emphasis on Rhodobacter sphaeroides. It possesses several types of the enzyme complexes catalyzing N2 fixation and H2 formation or oxidation, namely, three nitrogenases, and three hydrogenases. A major route for hydrogen production by R. sphaeroides is biological nitrogen fixation. However, hydrogen production in the context of nitrogen fixation is a rather inefficient process because most of the reductant consumed by the nitrogenase is used to generate ammonia. Modification of these genes, including hupS and/or hupL of hydrogenase, nifA and nifL of nitrogenase in R. sphaeroides, are summarized from recent studies. New ideas on the roles of nitrogenases and hydrogenases are presented and a description is made of a selection strategy to modify the strain of R. sphaeroide in which hydrogen production is necessary for growth. In addition, there is an interest in exploiting R. sphaeroides in light harvesting system to produce more electron, in which a result of photosynthetic cyclic electron transfer is to generate more H2. Thus it does not need more efficient hydrogenases and nitrogenases. A likely better strategy is to exploit the use of solar energy by the photosynthetic electron transport system to enhance the rates of H2 formation by genetic modification and thus improve the chances of utilizing R. sphaeroides as a source for the generation of clean energy for large-scale production.

Keywords: Rhodobacter sphaeroides; Genetic modification; Hydrogenase; Nitrogenase; Light harvesting system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116002367
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:1312-1318

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().