@article{644cff3b81674873a8fe97e6a1c9c184,
title = "Complete enzyme set for chlorophyll biosynthesis in Escherichia coli",
abstract = "Chlorophylls are essential cofactors for photosynthesis, which sustains global food chains and oxygen production. Billions of tons of chlorophylls are synthesized annually, yet full understanding of chlorophyll biosynthesis has been hindered by the lack of characterization of the Mg–protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester oxidative cyclase step, which confers the distinctive green color of these pigments. We demonstrate cyclase activity using heterologously expressed enzyme. Next, we assemble a genetic module that encodes the complete chlorophyll biosynthetic pathway and show that it functions in Escherichia coli. Expression of 12 genes converts endogenous protoporphyrin IX into chlorophyll a, turning E. coli cells green. Our results delineate a minimum set of enzymes required to make chlorophyll and establish a platform for engineering photosynthesis in a heterotrophic model organism.",
author = "Chen, {Guangyu E.} and Canniffe, {Daniel P.} and Barnett, {Samuel F.H.} and Sarah Hollingshead and Brindley, {Amanda A.} and Cvetelin Vasilev and Bryant, {Donald A.} and {Neil Hunter}, C.",
note = "Funding Information: We thank C. Bauer (Indiana University) for the gift of the Rba. capsulatus SB1003 strain, M. Proctor for providing the DV PChlide a and DV Chlide a standards, A. Hitchcock for providing the Chl a standard, and M. Radle (Pennsylvania State University) for assistance with LC-MS data collection. Funding: C.N.H. acknowledges financial support from Advanced Award 338895 from the European Research Council. C.N.H., G.E.C., and A.A.B. acknowledge funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (award number BB/M000265/1). D.P.C. is supported by the European Commission (Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie Global Fellowship 660652). S.F.H.B. was supported by a University of Sheffield 2022 Futures Studentship. D.A.B. acknowledges funding by NSF grant MCB-1613022 and Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant DE-FG02-94ER20137. Research in the laboratories of C.N.H. and D.A.B. was also conducted under the auspices of the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC 0001035. The SIM imaging was performed at the University of Sheffield Wolfson Light Microscopy Facility and was partly funded by Medical Research Council grant MR/K015753/1. S.H. was supported by a doctoral studentship from the University of Sheffield. Author contributions: G.E.C., S.H., and Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors.",
year = "2018",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1126/sciadv.aaq1407",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "4",
journal = "Science advances",
issn = "2375-2548",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "1",
}