科研成果 by Year: 2025

Cyanobacteria are promising platforms for light-driven carbon fixation and carbohydrate biosynthesis. However, optimization strategies that focus solely on carbon allocation are insufficient to achieve substantial improvements in yield and sustainability. Here, Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 was engineered to enhance sucrose production by simultaneously increasing total carbon input and reinforcing the artificial sink. The engineered strain secreted 5.821 g L−1 sucrose, which was 27.4 times higher than the wild-type. Transcriptomic analysis revealed upregulation of abundant genes involved in carbon fixation, sucrose biosynthesis, and electron transport chains. Furthermore, a synthetic light-driven consortium was established to directly convert CO2 into value-added compounds. This system produced 323.5 mg L−1 polyhydroxybutyrate, reducing CO2 emissions by 12.4 g per g of polyhydroxybutyrate compared to conventional heterotrophic processes. These findings highlight the potential of cyanobacteria-based systems for carbon-negative biomanufacturing, demonstrating their role in advancing sustainable carbohydrate and biochemical production while exemplifying circular bioeconomy principles.

Wetlands are major microplastic sinks with a large atmospheric input. However, many details of such deposited atmospheric microplastics entering into wetlands remain unclear, including temporal patterns of input and ecological effects. We monitored the aerial microplastics during four seasons in eleven economically developed cities along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, China. The average microplastic deposition rate was 512.31 items m−2 d−1, equivalent to an annual contribution of 17.46 metric tons of plastic to the surveyed wetlands with a total area of 1652 km2. These microplastics were predominantly composed of polyamide and polyethylene terephthalate with 61.85 ± 92.29 µm sized pellets, and we obtained similar results for microplastics intercepted on moss in wetlands. Microplastic input varied between wet and dry periods, primarily influenced by wind, rainfall and ozone concentration. Civilian vehicle density and textile industry were the primary socioeconomic factors driving microplastic deposition. Further indoor microcosm experiments revealed that moss phyllosphere bacterial community structure and function were influenced by microplastic abundance and size, exemplifying the unique ecological risks of aerially deposited microplastics to wetlands. These results indicate that mosses and their phyllosphere microbiota could serve as bio-indicators of aerial microplastic characteristics and impacts.