Photosynthetic hydrogen production by droplet-based microbial micro-reactors under aerobic conditions.

ABSTRACT: The spontaneous self-assembly of multicellular ensembles into living materials with synergistic structure and function remains a considerable challenge in biotechnology and synthetic biology. Here, we exploit the aqueous two-phase separation of dextran-in-PEG emulsion micro-droplets for the capture, spatial organization and immobilization of algal cells or algal/bacterial cell communities to produce discrete multicellular spheroids capable of both aerobic (oxygen producing) and hypoxic (hydrogen producing) photosynthesis in daylight under air. We show that localized oxygen depletion results in hydrogen production from the core of the algal microscale reactor, and demonstrate that enhanced levels of hydrogen evolution can be achieved synergistically by spontaneously enclosing the photosynth

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7689460 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature