【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】The Tianjin Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has achieved the synthesis of starch through the full carbon utilization of cellulose

Thread Content

According to a report from the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on November 20, a research team led by Researcher Zhang Yiheng from the Institute’s In Vitro Synthetic Biology Center and the National Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Synthetic Engineering Biology has made significant progress in the field of converting cellulose into starch. By redesigning the synthetic pathways, the team managed to achieve the full utilization of carbon from cellulose for starch production: (1) A new energy circulation pathway: Through an innovative approach to glucose recovery and reuse, the theoretical yield of starch was increased from 50% to 100%, thereby resolving the issue of carbon loss once and for all. (2) Innovation in enzyme element stability: The team systematically explored and screened a series of new enzyme elements with excellent thermal stability from special environments, raising the overall reaction temperature to 50°C. It not only significantly enhanced enzyme activity and reaction rate but also greatly reduced the amount of enzyme required per unit of output, laying a solid foundation for industrial scale-up. (3) System integration optimization: Through the coordinated optimization of various factors in the reaction system, the actual conversion rate of cellulose to starch was increased to 93.3%. The starch produced by this technology is pure amylose, with a highly controllable degree of polymerization; its molecular weight distribution (dispersion) is very narrow, and its structural uniformity is superior to that of starch extracted from natural sources. It holds unique application potential in the fields of food, pharmaceuticals, and materials. The ultra-pure linear starch with controllable molecular weight synthesized using this technology has been successfully applied as a chiral separation filler to efficiently separate chiral drug molecules such as thalidomide, thereby enabling the domestic substitution of such chiral fillers. https://p3-sign.toutiaoimg.com/tos-cn-i-axegupay5k/b9968108a6154756b17d5e17b8e5589e~tplv-tt-origin-web:gif.jpeg?_iz=58558&from=article.pc_detail&lk3s=953192f4&x-expires=1764479977&x-signature=TY9ZqUK%2FDg01Q%2FLFaYJbc2d2FJs%3D Schematic diagram of in vitro biotransformation of cellulose to starch (iC2S). This research was supported by the **Key Research and Development Program**, the National Natural Science Foundation, as well as the initiatives aimed at enhancing synthetic biology innovation capabilities in Tianjin and the major research projects at the Haihe Laboratory for Synthetic Biology. The relevant research findings were recently published in **National Science Review (NSR)**. Wang Jingting, a postdoctoral researcher at Tianjin Institute of Chemical Technology, is the first author, while Researcher Zhang Yiheng is the corresponding author; partner companies participated in the development of new packing materials for the separation of chiral drugs.