About this Research Topic
One-carbon (C1) molecules including carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), formate (CH2O), methanol (CH3OH), and methane (CH4) represent abundant potential feedstocks for biomanufacturing. CO2 and CH4 are potent greenhouse gases with atmospheric concentrations increasing due to anthropogenic activity; thus technologies targeting their mitigation to and/or sequestration from the atmosphere are essential. Natural gas, power plant flue gas, anaerobic digestion-derived biogas, and synthesis gas (syngas) are rich in C1 substrates for use in bioprocesses. Further, electrosynthesis of CH2O and/or CH3OH could serve as a means to convert CO2 to substrates more amenable to current transportation and industrial biomanufacturing infrastructure, due to their enhanced water solubility compared with gaseous C1 compounds.
Unique microbes with the capacity to utilize these C1 molecules as carbon and/or energy sources are phylogenetically diverse and include both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, yeast, microalga, and archaea. Several native and synthetic microbial C1 assimilation pathways have been leveraged to demonstrate proof-of-concept conversion of C1 substrates to an array of fuels and chemicals by industrially promising biocatalysts, but a deeper understanding of the governing mechanisms of C1 metabolic pathways is needed to develop viable C1-based biotechnologies.
This research topic will highlight, through Original Research articles and Reviews, recent discoveries in C1 metabolism and the advancement of C1-based biotechnologies. This topic will broadly cover:
• Microbial C1 processes, particularly the fundamental molecular and biochemical aspects of C1 metabolism and physiology
• The role of C1 metabolism in ecological and biogeochemical processes
• Biotechnologies leveraging native or synthetic C1-assimilating microbes
This project will aim to expand upon the knowledge built through previous Research Topics ‘Methane: A Bioresource for Fuel and Biomolecules’ and ‘Microbial Technologies for Bio-energy and Bio-product’.
Unique microbes with the capacity to utilize these C1 molecules as carbon and/or energy sources are phylogenetically diverse and include both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, yeast, microalga, and archaea. Several native and synthetic microbial C1 assimilation pathways have been leveraged to demonstrate proof-of-concept conversion of C1 substrates to an array of fuels and chemicals by industrially promising biocatalysts, but a deeper understanding of the governing mechanisms of C1 metabolic pathways is needed to develop viable C1-based biotechnologies.
This research topic will highlight, through Original Research articles and Reviews, recent discoveries in C1 metabolism and the advancement of C1-based biotechnologies. This topic will broadly cover:
• Microbial C1 processes, particularly the fundamental molecular and biochemical aspects of C1 metabolism and physiology
• The role of C1 metabolism in ecological and biogeochemical processes
• Biotechnologies leveraging native or synthetic C1-assimilating microbes
This project will aim to expand upon the knowledge built through previous Research Topics ‘Methane: A Bioresource for Fuel and Biomolecules’ and ‘Microbial Technologies for Bio-energy and Bio-product’.
Keywords: C1 biocatalysis, methanotrophy, methylotrophy, formatotrophy, carboxidotrophy, autotrophy
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
