Description

The rapid increase of temperature due to the greenhouse effect opposes one of the greatest challenges in human history. Man- made climate change endangers millions of lifes and urgent measures are required to prevent an even worse scenario for the future. Climate change is particularly created and fueled by the emission of greenhouse gases by fossil fuel consumption. To limit global warming, this emission, in particular of CO2, needs to be reduced enormously. Our group aimed to meet this challenge by harnessing an ancient microbial carbon assimilation pathway and introducing it to industrial biofuel producers, thereby creating the first carbon dioxide dependent super butanol producing bacterium. By creating tools for the transformation of the carbon assimilation pathway we took a first step towards a carbon neutral future and introduced a biotechnologically highly relevant bacterial class to the iGEM community.