Bacterial inorganic carbon assimilation: interplay between CO2 fixation and energy metabolic pathways in an environmental autotroph
Project Acronym : REBEL
Project Title: Reducing power and reverse Krebs cycle for carbon fixation in Aquifex aeolicus
Topics: Bacteria, Metabolic pathways, Carbon assimilation, Energy metabolism, Environment, Biogeochemical cycles
Disciplinary Fields: Microbiology, Genetics, Biochemistry
Summary: The REBEL project aims to understand how the CO2 fixation is driven by the reducing power, in bacteria assimilating carbon by the reverse Krebs cycle. Understanding the metabolic node linking electron flow and CO2 fixation is a major challenge in understanding the functioning of autotrophic bacteria. The reverse Krebs cycle is powered by ferredoxins of low redox potential, which are reduced by energy sources with a higher redox potential. Deciphering how carbon fixation is linked to energy metabolism in Aquifex aeolicus, an hyperthermophilic marine bacterium, and identifying enzymes that can bypass this thermodynamic bias is the objective of this project. One of the objectives is to develop the CrispR-Cas9 tool, which is particularly exciting and promising for the study of this type of organism. The REBEL project is part of the A1 axis of the IM2B (Biodiversity, molecular mechanisms and machines).
Project duration: 01/01/2021 – 01/01/2023
Call of Proposal: Call IM2B-2021-Interdisciplinarity
Photography credits: Photo by CDC on Unsplash
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