Abstract
We report the mixotrophic growth of Escherichia coli based on recombinant 2-oxoglutarate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (OGOR) to assimilate CO(2) using malate as an auxiliary carbon source and hydrogen as an energy source. We employ a long-term (~184 days) two-stage adaptive evolution to convert heterotrophic E. coli into mixotrophic E. coli. In the first stage of evolution with serine, diauxic growth emerges as a prominent feature. At the end of the second stage of evolution with malate, the strain exhibits mixotrophy with CO(2) as an essential substrate for growth. We expect this work will open new possibilities in the utilization of OGOR for microbial CO(2) assimilation and future hydrogen-based electro-microbial conversion.