title: A bio-catalytic approach to aliphatic ketones.
abstract: Depleting oil reserves and growing environmental concerns have necessitated the development of sustainable processes to fuels and chemicals. Here we have developed a general metabolic platform in E. coli to biosynthesize carboxylic acids. By engineering selectivity of 2-ketoacid decarboxylases and screening for promiscuous aldehyde dehydrogenases, synthetic pathways were constructed to produce both C5 and C6 acids. In particular, the production of isovaleric acid reached 32 g/L (0.22 g/g glucose yield), which is 58% of the theoretical yield. Furthermore, we have developed solid base catalysts to efficiently ketonize the bio-derived carboxylic acids such as isovaleric acid and isocaproic acid into high volume industrial ketones: methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK, yield 84%), diisobutyl ketone (DIBK, yield 66%) and methyl isoamyl ketone (MIAK, yield 81%). This hybrid "Bio-Catalytic conversion" approach provides a general strategy to manufacture aliphatic ketones, and represents an alternate route to expanding the repertoire of renewable chemicals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minnesota 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Mingyong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Woodruff
authors.forename: Minshan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Sun Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Kechun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D055162:Biocatalysis; D007659:Ketones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D007659:Ketones