Team:UNAM-Genomics Mexico/Project

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Abstract

Molecular hydrogen is an alternative energy carrier to electricity and hydrocarbon derived fuels. Among the natural systems that produce hydrogen, the most efficient ones are those that produce it through reactions catalyzed by enzymes with iron-sulfur clusters which require hypoxic microenvironments to work. The bacterium Rhizobium etli, during its symbiotic relationship with the common bean Phaseolus vulgaris, can transform nitrogen gas (N₂) into ammonia (NH₃) in a process called nitrogen fixation. The bean plant benefits from the produced nitrogen containing compounds. In exchange it provides the bacteria with carbon sources and a protected niche inside its root, where Rhizobium etli reaches a hypoxic state. We will take advantage of this hypoxic state to produce hydrogen in Rhizobium etli while maintaining nitrogen fixation.

Rhizobium etli is not commonly used in biological engineering. Thus we will both develop new tools and characterize parts already existing in the registry to work in a standardized way with Rhizobium etli. Our tools include plasmids, regulatory upstream regions and transcriptional terminators. The hydrogen-production pathway includes elements from the bacteria Clostridium acetobutylicum and Desulfovibrio africanus, and the algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The two main goals of our project are to make Rhizobium etli a powerful agent in environmental protection by nitrifying soils and producing hydrogen from solar energy, and to standardize the work in Rhizobials.

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