Transplanting an Entire 'Manufacturing Factory' into Cyanobacteria — World's First Success in Producing Sulfated Polysaccharides (Institute of Science Tokyo)

Explanation

Assistant Professor Kaisei Maeda of the Institute of Chemical and Life Sciences, Institute of Integrated Research at Institute of Science Tokyo, and colleagues have succeeded in transplanting an entire substance-producing mechanism between photosynthetic microorganisms called 'cyanobacteria.'

What was transplanted was the xss gene cluster that synthesizes a sulfated polysaccharide called synechan. Since transferring the genes alone would not make them functional, the gene cluster that assists in the process of turning them into proteins was transplanted along with them. As a result, the team succeeded for the first time in the world in getting a different cyanobacterium, which originally did not produce sulfated polysaccharides, to produce this substance.

In cyanobacteria, there had previously been no example of an entire complex synthesis system located on the cell membrane being transferred to and made functional in a different species.

The key point is that this is not simply a matter of 'transferring genes produces the substance.' Genes are, after all, only blueprints; only once that blueprint has been converted into the physical form of a protein and correctly assembled on the cell membrane does the system function as a factory. This study involved transplanting that entire process as a set.

Because cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis, if this approach succeeds, it could be used to produce useful substances from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Published paper DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-46439-4.