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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NCScience Advances

An anoxygenic photosynthesis-inspired dual biohybrid for light-enhanced chemical production

  • Ying Yang1
  • Xin Wang2
  • Tao Zhou3
  • Zipeng Zhu1
  • Yuanyuan Wang3
  • Xiang Gao2
  • Yiliang Lin1
  1. 1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
  2. 2State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
  3. 3State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
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Abstract

Integrating light-harvesting materials with non-photosynthetic microbes offers a promising route to convert sunlight into chemicals. However, many existing biohybrid systems lack a clear architectural basis linking external light capture to intracellular redox processes. Inspired by the modular architecture of anoxygenic photosynthesis, we report a dual biohybrid system for light-enhanced chemical production in Escherichia coli . The system combines extracellular conjugated polymer nanoparticles as light-harvesting antenna with intracellularly biomineralized CdS nanoparticles as reaction-center–like charge-separation modules. This architecture supports light-enhanced malate production, yielding nearly a 30-fold enhancement relative to unmodified cells. Illumination-dependent studies reveal that activity is governed by light absorption, photon flux, and the intracellular redox environment. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy further indicates photophysical coupling between the polymer and CdS components, consistent with energy transfer across the bio–synthetic interface and enhanced intracellular redox activity. Together, these results show how modular organization at the bio–synthetic interface can couple light harvesting with intracellular redox chemistry in living systems.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{yang2026anoxygenic,
  title = {{An anoxygenic photosynthesis-inspired dual biohybrid for light-enhanced chemical production}},
  author = {Ying Yang and Xin Wang and Tao Zhou and Zipeng Zhu and Yuanyuan Wang and Xiang Gao and Yiliang Lin},
  journal = {Science Advances},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aef4504},
  url = {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef4504},
  note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - An anoxygenic photosynthesis-inspired dual biohybrid for light-enhanced chemical production
AU  - Ying Yang
AU  - Xin Wang
AU  - Tao Zhou
AU  - Zipeng Zhu
AU  - Yuanyuan Wang
AU  - Xiang Gao
AU  - Yiliang Lin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/02
JO  - Science Advances
DO  - 10.1126/sciadv.aef4504
UR  - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef4504
AB  - Integrating light-harvesting materials with non-photosynthetic microbes offers a promising route to convert sunlight into chemicals. However, many existing biohybrid systems lack a clear architectural basis linking external light capture to intracellular redox processes. Inspired by the modular architecture of anoxygenic photosynthesis, we report a dual biohybrid system for light-enhanced chemical production in Escherichia coli . The system combines extracellular conjugated polymer nanoparticles as light-harvesting antenna with intracellularly biomineralized CdS nanoparticles as reaction-center–like charge-separation modules. This architecture supports light-enhanced malate production, yielding nearly a 30-fold enhancement relative to unmodified cells. Illumination-dependent studies reveal that activity is governed by light absorption, photon flux, and the intracellular redox environment. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy further indicates photophysical coupling between the polymer and CdS components, consistent with energy transfer across the bio–synthetic interface and enhanced intracellular redox activity. Together, these results show how modular organization at the bio–synthetic interface can couple light harvesting with intracellular redox chemistry in living systems.
SN  - 2375-2548
ER  -