Visible-Light-Driven Enhanced Biohydrogen Production by Photo-Biohybrid System Based on Photoelectron Transfer between Intracellular Photosensitizer Gold Nanoparticles and Clostridium butyricum

Abstract

Biohydrogen is a clean and renewable energy, but the low yield caused by the lack of reducing power in cells greatly restricts the industrialization of biohydrogen production. Photobiohybrid systems (PBSs) can integrate the high light energy utilization efficiency of photocatalysts with the excellent catalytic performance of microorganisms. Here, gold nanoparticles were targeted into Clostridium butyricum as intracellular photosensitizers to construct a PBS that could efficiently produce biohydrogen under visible light, with the apparent quantum yield as high as 19.31%. Compared with the dark-fermented C. butyricum, the biohydrogen production of PBS increased by 88.74%. The mechanism of photoelectrons from Au NPs to C. butyricum was elucidated by the transcriptome. Compared with the darkfermented biohybrids, the expressions of biohydrogen generation-related enzymes, such as hydrogenase and pyruvate formate lyase genes, in the PBS were all upregulated more than 2 times. Furthermore, the genes of riboflavin synthase, electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF), and FAD-dependent oxidoreductase, which are closely related to electron transformation, were all significantly upregulated. The photoelectrons were transferred to the hydrogenase via ETF and FAD 2+ to enhance biohydrogen production, independent of pyruvate decomposition. This PBS provides theoretical guidance for constructing an efficient light-driven microbial manufacturing system.

The roles of templates consisting of amino acids in the synthesis and application of gold nanoclusters

“…13B). 223 In addition to the application of light absorber in biosystems, electrons from GSH-AuNCs as photosensitizer under visible light were injected into TiO 2 films to carry out power conversion. GSH-AuNCs adsorbed on TiO 2 electrodes had photovoltaic properties by converting light to current.…”

Revisiting Solar Energy Flow in Nanomaterial-Microorganism Hybrid Systems

“…This mode of energy transport has been observed in the CdS-M. thermoacetica system 23 and is likely to occur in systems based on chemoautotrophs capable of metabolizing H 2 , such as S. ovata, 165 R. eutropha 157,158,162 and Clostridium sp. 161,186 Regarding all bioconsumable energy carriers, H 2 , formate, and acetate can first be generated from water or CO 2 in electrochemical or photoelectrochemical devices, and then fed into bioreactors for subsequent microbial-mediated conversion into higher-value products, such as PHB 245 and glucose. 230 The performance of energy carrier production in electrochemical devices and consumption in bioreactors can be individually optimized, and the coupling of these modules is less encumbered by concerns over compatibility between the different reaction conditions of electrocatalysis and biocatalysis.…”

Integrated Biotic–Abiotic Solar Driven NADPH Regeneration Platform in Escherichia coli for Chemical Biomanufacturing Applications

“…[1,[9][10][11] Yang and co-workers presented a study in which acetogenic bacteria utilized precipitated CdS for the light-triggered CO 2 reduction inside the living organism. [12] Following that, several biohybrid systems have been reported, using various inorganic nanomaterials as photosensitizers, including semiconductor QDs, [13][14][15] metal nanoparticles (NPs), [16,17] and molecular dyes. [18] These were coupled with different kingdoms of life, that is bacteria, [13,14,18] yeast, [19] archaea, [20] algae, [21] and mammalian cells.…”