title: Engineering an isoprenoid pathway in Escherichia coli for production of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol: a potential biofuel.
abstract: 2-Methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) is a natural volatile 5-carbon alcohol produced by several pine species that have the potential to be used as biofuel. MBO has a high energy content making it superior to ethanol in terms of energy output, and due to its volatility and lower solubility in water, MBO is easier to recover than ethanol. Pine's MBO synthase enzyme utilizes the intermediate dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) produced by the methyl-erythritol-4-phosphate isoprenoid pathway for the production of MBO. In this study, we performed metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli to express an alternate mevalonate dependent pathway for production of DMAPP, along with a codon optimized Pinus sabiniana MBO synthase gene. This heterologous expressed pathway carried out the conversion of an acetyl CoA precursor to DMAPP leading to production of MBO.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, California State University, 18111 Nordoff Street, Northridge, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Dinesh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: Chhandak
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Basu
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D008798:Mevalonic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D000439:Pentanols / Q000378:metabolism; D013729:Terpenes / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D000439:Pentanols; D013729:Terpenes; D008798:Mevalonic Acid; C027250:3-hydroxy-3-methylbutene