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      A force awakens: exploiting solar energy beyond photosynthesis

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          Abstract

          In recent years, efforts to exploit sunlight, a free and abundant energy source, have sped up dramatically. Oxygenic photosynthetic organisms, such as higher plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, can convert solar energy into chemical energy very efficiently using water as an electron donor. By providing organic building blocks for life in this way, photosynthesis is undoubtedly one of the most important processes on Earth. The aim of light-driven catalysis is to harness solar energy, in the form of reducing power, to drive enzymatic reactions requiring electrons for their catalytic cycle. Light-driven enzymes have been shown to have a large number of biotechnological applications, ranging from the production of high-value secondary metabolites to the development of green chemistry processes. Here, we highlight recent key developments in the field of light-driven catalysis using biological components. We will also discuss strategies to design and optimize light-driven systems in order to develop the next generation of sustainable solutions in biotechnology.

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          Most cited references65

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          Golden Gate Shuffling: A One-Pot DNA Shuffling Method Based on Type IIs Restriction Enzymes

          We have developed a protocol to assemble in one step and one tube at least nine separate DNA fragments together into an acceptor vector, with 90% of recombinant clones obtained containing the desired construct. This protocol is based on the use of type IIs restriction enzymes and is performed by simply subjecting a mix of 10 undigested input plasmids (nine insert plasmids and the acceptor vector) to a restriction-ligation and transforming the resulting mix in competent cells. The efficiency of this protocol allows generating libraries of recombinant genes by combining in one reaction several fragment sets prepared from different parental templates. As an example, we have applied this strategy for shuffling of trypsinogen from three parental templates (bovine cationic trypsinogen, bovine anionic trypsinogen and human cationic trypsinogen) each divided in 9 separate modules. We show that one round of shuffling using the 27 trypsinogen entry plasmids can easily produce the 19,683 different possible combinations in one single restriction-ligation and that expression screening of a subset of the library allows identification of variants that can lead to higher expression levels of trypsin activity. This protocol, that we call ‘Golden Gate shuffling’, is robust, simple and efficient, can be performed with templates that have no homology, and can be combined with other shuffling protocols in order to introduce any variation in any part of a given gene.
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            A golden gate modular cloning toolbox for plants.

            Plant Synthetic Biology requires robust and efficient methods for assembling multigene constructs. Golden Gate cloning provides a precision module-based cloning technique for facile assembly of multiple genes in one construct. We present here a versatile resource for plant biologists comprising a set of cloning vectors and 96 standardized parts to enable Golden Gate construction of multigene constructs for plant transformation. Parts include promoters, untranslated sequences, reporters, antigenic tags, localization signals, selectable markers, and terminators. The comparative performance of parts in the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana is discussed.
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              Microbial biosynthesis of alkanes.

              Alkanes, the major constituents of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, are naturally produced by diverse species; however, the genetics and biochemistry behind this biology have remained elusive. Here we describe the discovery of an alkane biosynthesis pathway from cyanobacteria. The pathway consists of an acyl-acyl carrier protein reductase and an aldehyde decarbonylase, which together convert intermediates of fatty acid metabolism to alkanes and alkenes. The aldehyde decarbonylase is related to the broadly functional nonheme diiron enzymes. Heterologous expression of the alkane operon in Escherichia coli leads to the production and secretion of C13 to C17 mixtures of alkanes and alkenes. These genes and enzymes can now be leveraged for the simple and direct conversion of renewable raw materials to fungible hydrocarbon fuels.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Exp Bot
                J. Exp. Bot
                exbotj
                Journal of Experimental Botany
                Oxford University Press (UK )
                0022-0957
                1460-2431
                01 March 2019
                18 February 2019
                18 February 2019
                : 70
                : 6
                : 1703-1710
                Affiliations
                Copenhagen Plant Science Centre, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark
                Author notes
                Correspondence: peje@ 123456plen.ku.dk

                These authors contributed equally to this work

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4729-1701
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-8810
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6524-7723
                Article
                erz054
                10.1093/jxb/erz054
                6436153
                30773590
                f0945a18-eb83-4ddb-a0b3-3bb9ea867787
                © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 28 December 2018
                : 05 February 2019
                Page count
                Pages: 8
                Funding
                Funded by: Copenhagen Plant Science Centre
                Funded by: VILLUM Foundation
                Award ID: 13363
                Funded by: Novo Nordisk Foundation 10.13039/501100009708
                Award ID: NNF16OC0021832
                Funded by: Danish Council for Independent Research 10.13039/501100004836
                Award ID: 7014-00322B
                Funded by: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
                Award ID: 745959
                Categories
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                Plant science & Botany
                cytochrome p450,light-driven catalysis,light-driven synthesis,photosynthetic chassis,photosensitizer,redox enzymes

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