{
  "abstract": "Reverting waste carbon into chemicals and materials with minimal freshwater reliance is essential for a sustainable future. Here, we report the establishment of a blue biological scheme by repurposing the evolutionary fitness of the marine bacterium Roseovarius nubinhibens for efficient conversion of lignin-derived carbon into valuable chemicals with seawater as a water source. We create independency of the superior catalytic capacity of R. nubinhibens to circumvent a rare polar effect, and genetically decouple the bioproduction pathway from central metabolism, channeling all lignin-derived carbon into desired products. Next, an orthogonal growth module is generated with acetate as a second carbon source, which is a ubiquitous byproduct and inhibitor in plant biomass hydrolysis, to sustain cell growth and supply necessary resources, but not substrates, for the growth-coupled bioproduction. Besides this designed metabolic segregation, we identify a cross-module push-and-pull synergy between bioproduction and cell growth, enabling enhanced performance and robustness. By deploying this biological scheme, we successfully achieve escalated conversion of the lignin-derived monomer 4-hydroxybenzoate to value-added compounds protocatechuate and β-ketoadipate with seawater, rather than freshwater, as the water source, generating a distinct blue biological scheme with potential for simultaneous carbon and water conservation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Ying Wei",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-6865-7231"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pei-Ru Chen",
      "orcid": "0009-0006-9369-2377"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bo Gong"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xian-Zheng Yuan",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7893-0692"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shu-Guang Wang",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9381-1771"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peng-Fei Xia",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5881-9834"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fehgqxwgy8rwb.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41467-026-78209-1",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13719989",
  "id": "fehgqxwgy8rwb",
  "issns": [
    "2041-1723"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78209-1",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1312|Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215127707",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78209-1.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13719989",
  "pmid": "42957721",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fehgqxwgy8rwb.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:38Z",
      "native_id": "10.1038/s41467-026-78209-1",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78209-1"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:29Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42957721",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42957721"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:23:51Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13719989",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78209-1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biochemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1312|Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction",
      "subfield": "molecular-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Repurposing the evolutionary fitness of marine bacteria for water-conserving conversion of lignin-derived carbon",
  "title_text": "Repurposing the evolutionary fitness of marine bacteria for water-conserving conversion of lignin-derived carbon",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:20:57Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fehgqxwgy8rwb",
  "venue": "Nature Communications",
  "versions": []
}