Researchers at Uppsala University engineered a two-member microbial team that uses sunlight and CO2 to produce 1-butanol, a chemical and potential biofuel. A modified Synechocystis cyanobacterium secretes acetate from CO2, and engineered E. coli or Pseudomonas taiwanensis consume that acetate and convert it into 1-butanol. The co-cultures stayed stable for 42 days, according to the study in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. This approach matters because it replaces sugar-based feeding with a direct photosynthetic carbon source, which could eventually support fuels and chemicals without food crop competition. The work is still at lab scale, and key questions remain around yield, energy balance, and scaling photobioreactor systems.
