Escherichia coli is engineered to grow on CO2 and formic acid

We engineered Escherichia coli to grow on CO 2 and formic acid alone by introducing the synthetic CO 2 and formic acid assimilation pathway, expressing two formate dehydrogenase genes, fine-tuning metabolic fluxes and optimizing the levels of cytochrome bo 3 and bd -I ubiquinol oxidase. Our engineered strain can grow to an optical density at 600 nm of 7.38 in 450 h, and shows promise as a platform strain growing on CO 2 and formic acid alone. Growth of Escherichia coli on carbon dioxide and formate is achieved by rational metabolic engineering alone.