Biological carbon fixation: From natural to synthetic

The looming energy crisis and greenhouse effect are two of the greatest problems facing the sustainable development of humanity. Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and chemicals by organisms is a promising way to solve these problems. However, since the natural biological carbon fixation rate cannot meet the industrial demand, more efficient carbon fixation processes are urgently needed. With the rapid development of biotechnology and life sciences, more and more information about the natural carbon fixation processes have been revealed. The unrelenting efforts have been practiced for improving the carbon fixation efficiency by redesigning carbon fixation pathways and even introducing novel energy supply patterns. In this review, we summarized the recent achievements and discussed the future prospects on biological carbon fixation.