A chemoenzymatic cascade with the potential to feed the world and allow humans to live in space

Abstract

While the typical targets of (chemo-)enzymatic cascades are fine chemicals (e.g., pharmaceuticals), a chemoenzymatic cascade, artificial starch anabolic pathway (ASAP), was recently developed to synthesize starch from CO2. The key results and outstanding features of ASAP are discussed here. We envision that ASAP and its microbial counterpart may enable efficient synthesis of food and sequestration of CO2 in a circular manner, thus contributing to a sustainable and hunger-free world and future habitation in space.

Keywords

• Chemoenzymatic cascade
• Cell-free system
• Carbon dioxide
• Artificial pathway