TY - JOUR
T1 - Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the de novo stereospecific biosynthesis of 1,2-propanediol through lactic acid
AU - Niu, Wei
AU - Kramer, Levi
AU - Mueller, Joshua
AU - Liu, Kun
AU - Guo, Jiantao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO) is an industrial chemical with a broad range of applications, such as the production of alkyd and unsaturated polyester resins. It is currently produced as a racemic mixture from nonrenewable petroleum-based feedstocks. We have reported a novel artificial pathway for the biosynthesis of 1,2-PDO via lactic acid isomers as the intermediates. The pathway circumvents the cytotoxicity issue caused by methylglyoxal intermediate in the naturally existing pathway. Successful E. coli bioconversion of lactic acid to 1,2-PDO was shown in previous report. Here, we demonstrated the engineering of E. coli host strains for the de novo biosynthesis of 1,2-PDO through this pathway. Under fermenter-controlled conditions, the R-1,2-PDO was produced at 17.3 g/L with a molar yield of 42.2% from glucose, while the S-isomer was produced at 9.3 g/L with a molar yield of 23.2%. The optical purities of the two isomers were 97.5% ee (R) and 99.3% ee (S), respectively. To the best of our knowledge, these are the highest titers of 1,2-PDO biosynthesized by either natural producer or engineered microbial strains that are published in peer-reviewed journals.
AB - 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO) is an industrial chemical with a broad range of applications, such as the production of alkyd and unsaturated polyester resins. It is currently produced as a racemic mixture from nonrenewable petroleum-based feedstocks. We have reported a novel artificial pathway for the biosynthesis of 1,2-PDO via lactic acid isomers as the intermediates. The pathway circumvents the cytotoxicity issue caused by methylglyoxal intermediate in the naturally existing pathway. Successful E. coli bioconversion of lactic acid to 1,2-PDO was shown in previous report. Here, we demonstrated the engineering of E. coli host strains for the de novo biosynthesis of 1,2-PDO through this pathway. Under fermenter-controlled conditions, the R-1,2-PDO was produced at 17.3 g/L with a molar yield of 42.2% from glucose, while the S-isomer was produced at 9.3 g/L with a molar yield of 23.2%. The optical purities of the two isomers were 97.5% ee (R) and 99.3% ee (S), respectively. To the best of our knowledge, these are the highest titers of 1,2-PDO biosynthesized by either natural producer or engineered microbial strains that are published in peer-reviewed journals.
KW - 1,2-propanediol
KW - Escherichia coli
KW - Lactic acid
KW - Reduction
KW - Stereospecific
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058541102&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.mec.2018.e00082
DO - 10.1016/j.mec.2018.e00082
M3 - Article
C2 - 30591904
AN - SCOPUS:85058541102
SN - 2214-0301
VL - 8
JO - Metabolic Engineering Communications
JF - Metabolic Engineering Communications
M1 - e00082
ER -