Meet the authorInterview on 18 February 2022

Yuki Kawanishi (Tokyo University of Science, Japan)
See Kawanisi Y. and Matsunaga S. (2021) Cytologia 86, 277-281

What is the self-promotion of the Focus paper and what are the global trends in yourresearch?
I extensively explain the principles of photosynthesis, especially the metabolic pathway
centered on RuBisCO (ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase). The second halfof the paper describes the challenges involved in converting heterotrophic organisms intoautotrophic ones and introduces successful cases in Escherichia coli and yeast. Against thebackdrop of global warming, the global situation has shown that research institutes andcompanies are moving toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research
introduced in this paper aims to realize a carbon-neutral society by converting industrial
heterotrophs into autotrophs. In the past, it was difficult to synthesize and edit long DNA
strands, but now, with the decline in the price of genome synthesis, it is possible to designand construct new artificial life systems. Therefore, I believe that in the near future, not only
E. coli and yeast, but also animal cells will be converted into autotrophs. Research in the fieldof synthetic biology is highly original and contributes to society.
How do you think that the synthetic carbon fixation research will develop in the future?
Also, what kind of society will be created if carbon
fixation becomes possible in animal or fungus cells
in the future?
I believe that future research on synthetic biologicalcarbonfixationwillbedevelopedfromthreeperspectives. The first is to improve the efficiency ofcarbon fixation. Currently, in organisms that have been
converted from heterotrophs to autotrophs, carbon
fixation does not greatly exceed carbon dioxide

Yuki is checking his constructed cells.

emissions. It is said that this is because the carbon fixation efficiency of RuiBisCO is very
poor. The second is to increase the number of species that can fix carbon. The second is toincrease the number of species that can be used for carbon fixation. With the synthetic
biology approach, the necessary genes and codon sequences can be arbitrarily designed
and constructed according to the species. The third is the development of research ingenome synthesis. Information on insertion regions that stably maintain the genomic DNA
required for carbon fixation and factors that promote expression and assembly of thetransplanted genome will be useful for future research.
If carbon fixation becomes possible in animal cells in the future, I believe that innovations
will occur in various fields. For example, CHO-K1 cells are the organism responsible for mostof the industrial production of medical proteins, and if they are able to fix carbon, they cancontribute greatly to carbon neutrality. In addition, in organoid production and cellular tissue
engineering, which are expected to be used in the medical field, nutrient supply to the insideof tissues is an issue, and animal cells that can fix carbon have the potential to solve theseproblems. I believe that the development of such applications will lead to the realization of
the SDGs and the realization of a prosperous society.
You have been strongly interested in synthetic biology since you participated in iGEM.
Could you tell us how you became interested in such synthetic biology?
My interest in synthetic biology was sparked by my supervisor, Professor Matsunaga's lecture.
The lecture deepened stimulated my interestin synthetic biology. I participated in theiGEM(TheInternational

GeneticallyEngineered Machine competition), a worldcompetition of synthetic biology when I wasanundergraduate

student.

In

thiscompetition, I designed and constructed anew

biologicalsystem

bycombining

standardized genetic parts and created aYuki with members got the Award at iGEM.

bacterium that can synthesize amino acids by nitrogen fixation. Our originality andcontribution to society were highly evaluated, and we won the Silver Award. Now I am
conducting the research on the creation of artificial photosynthetic animal cells, "planimalcells," using a synthetic biology approach. I am experiencing new discoveries andtechnological advances through the transfer of the huge plant genome into animal cells using
cell fusion technology and synthesize photosynthesis-related genes on a genome scale using
long DNA synthesis technology.