Fig. 1: New-to-nature photosynthesis system in E. coli for one-carbon substrates utilization.

E. coli photosynthesis system contains light reaction, dark reaction, and energy adapter. The light reaction converts light energy into metabolic energy, such as ATP and NADH by constructing a biogenic photosystem NPM*. Dark reaction utilizes CO2 to synthesize central metabolite and further expands to the output of various bioproducts driven by the light reaction. An Energy adapter is installed to dynamically match light reactions and dark reactions. Abbreviations: hv, photon energy; e-, electron; CO2, carbon dioxide; CH3OH, methanol (as an electron sacrificial agent for NPM*); HCOOH, formate; IM, inner membrane; ETC, electron transport chain; NPM*, biogenic photosystem NuoK* + PufL + MgP (NuoK*, the mutant of NADH dehydrogenase complex subunit K; PufL, core protein of photosynthesis reaction center from Rhodopseudomonas viridis; MgP, magnesium protoporphyrin IX); ATP/ADP, adenosine triphosphate/diphosphate; NADH/NAD+, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide reduced/oxidized.