GENERATING A SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY TOOLBOX FOR NITROORGANICS

Nitroorganic compounds are widely used as energetic materials in propellants and explosives. They are currently produced through chemical synthesis. The nitroorganic explosives and propellants (energetic compounds) utilized in modern conventional munitions are currently synthesized in chemical processes using largely petroleum derived feedstocks for the carbon skeleton. Biotechnological routes to the energetic compounds and/or their precursors would utilize plant biomass derived sugars and simple nitrogen compounds without the use of strong acids, large amounts of organic solvents, or heavy metal catalysts. In order to decrease environment impact, we proposed the biosynthetic route to synthesize nitroorganics. Biosynthetic routes would potentially have less environmental impact and liberate production of these energetic materials from the need for any foreign-sourced materials or catalysts. To biosynthesize nitroorganics, the genes encoding the enzymes that comprise the pathways to various types of nitroorganic compounds must first be identified and then recombined by synthetic biology techniques to obtain new biosynthetic routes to nitroorganic compounds of interest. Our principal aim in this project is to populate the synthetic biology toolbox with well characterized genes for the biosynthesis of nitroorganic compounds.硝基有机化合物（Nitroorganic compounds）被广泛用作推进剂与炸药中的含能材料，目前其生产均通过化学合成手段实现。当前，现代常规弹药所使用的硝基有机炸药与推进剂（含能化合物），多以石油基原料作为碳骨架来源，经由化学工艺合成。而用于制备此类含能化合物及其前体的生物合成路径，则可利用植物生物质衍生的糖类与简单氮源，无需使用强酸、大量有机溶剂或重金属催化剂。为降低生产的环境影响，本研究提出了合成硝基有机化合物的生物合成路径。此类生物合成路径不仅环境友好性更优，还可使此类含能材料的生产摆脱对外部原料或催化剂的依赖。若要实现硝基有机化合物的生物合成，首先需鉴定编码各类硝基有机化合物合成通路酶类的基因，随后通过合成生物学技术对这些基因进行重组，以构建目标硝基有机化合物的全新生物合成路径。本项目的核心目标，是为合成生物学工具库补充经过充分表征的、可用于硝基有机化合物生物合成的基因。