TY - JOUR

T1 - Metagenomics Meets Electrochemistry

T2 - Utilizing the Huge Catalytic Potential From the Uncultured Microbial Majority for Energy-Storage

AU - Adam, Nicole

AU - Schlicht, Stefanie

AU - Han, Yuchen

AU - Bechelany, Mikhael

AU - Bachmann, Julien

AU - Perner, Mirjam

N1 - Funding Information: Funding. This work was supported by the research grants DFG PE1549-6/1 and PE1549-6/3 from the German Science Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright © 2020 Adam, Schlicht, Han, Bechelany, Bachmann and Perner. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/6/4

Y1 - 2020/6/4

N2 - Hydrogen can in the future serve as an advantageous carrier of renewable energy if its production via water electrolysis and utilization in fuel cells are realized with high energy efficiency and non-precious electrocatalysts. In an unprecedented novel combination of structured electrodes with hydrogen converting enzymes from the uncultured and thus largely inaccessible microbial majority (>99%) we address this challenge. The geometrically defined electrodes with large specific surface area allow for low overpotentials and high energy efficiencies to be achieved. Enzymatic hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts are used as alternatives to noble metals. The enzymes are harnessed from the environmental microbial DNA (metagenomes) of hydrothermal vents exhibiting dynamic hydrogen and oxygen concentrations and are recovered via a recently developed novel activity-based screening tool. The screen enables us to target currently unrecognized hydrogenase enzymes from metagenomes via direct expression in a surrogate host microorganism. This circumvents the need for cultivation of the source organisms, the primary bottleneck when harnessing enzymes from microbes. One hydrogen converting metagenome-derived enzyme exhibited high activity and unusually high stability when dispersed on a TiO2-coated polyacrylonitrile fiber electrode. Our results highlight the tremendous potential of enzymes derived from uncultured microorganisms for applications in energy conversion and storage technologies.

AB - Hydrogen can in the future serve as an advantageous carrier of renewable energy if its production via water electrolysis and utilization in fuel cells are realized with high energy efficiency and non-precious electrocatalysts. In an unprecedented novel combination of structured electrodes with hydrogen converting enzymes from the uncultured and thus largely inaccessible microbial majority (>99%) we address this challenge. The geometrically defined electrodes with large specific surface area allow for low overpotentials and high energy efficiencies to be achieved. Enzymatic hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts are used as alternatives to noble metals. The enzymes are harnessed from the environmental microbial DNA (metagenomes) of hydrothermal vents exhibiting dynamic hydrogen and oxygen concentrations and are recovered via a recently developed novel activity-based screening tool. The screen enables us to target currently unrecognized hydrogenase enzymes from metagenomes via direct expression in a surrogate host microorganism. This circumvents the need for cultivation of the source organisms, the primary bottleneck when harnessing enzymes from microbes. One hydrogen converting metagenome-derived enzyme exhibited high activity and unusually high stability when dispersed on a TiO2-coated polyacrylonitrile fiber electrode. Our results highlight the tremendous potential of enzymes derived from uncultured microorganisms for applications in energy conversion and storage technologies.

KW - electrochemical cells

KW - energy storage

KW - hydrogen production

KW - hydrogenase

KW - metagenomics

KW - polyacrilonitrile fiber electrodes

KW - OXIDATION

KW - LIBRARIES

KW - HYDROGENASE ENZYMES

KW - CLONING

KW - FUEL-CELLS

KW - H-2

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086579705&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00567

DO - 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00567

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85086579705

VL - 8

JO - Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

JF - Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

SN - 2296-4185

M1 - 567

ER -