title: A hybrid synthetic pathway for butanol production by a hyperthermophilic microbe.
abstract: Biologically produced alcohols are of great current interest for renewable solvents and liquid transportation fuels. While bioethanol is now produced on a massive scale, butanol has superior fuel characteristics and an additional value as a solvent and chemical feedstock. Butanol production has been demonstrated at ambient temperatures in metabolically-engineered mesophilic organisms, but the ability to engineer a microbe for in vivo high-temperature production of commodity chemicals has several distinct advantages. These include reduced contamination risk, facilitated removal of volatile products, and a wide temperature range to modulate and balance both the engineered pathway and the host׳s metabolism. We describe a synthetic metabolic pathway assembled from genes obtained from three different sources for conversion of acetyl-CoA to 1-butanol, and 1-butanol generation from glucose was demonstrated near 70°C in a microorganism that grows optimally near 100°C. The module could also be used in thermophiles capable of degrading plant biomass.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Gina L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Lipscomb
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Loder
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Gerrit J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Schut
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. Electronic address: adams@bmb.uga.edu.
authors.forename: Michael W W
authors.initials: MWW
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D020001:1-Butanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D000105:Acetyl Coenzyme A / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D046950:Thermoanaerobacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000105:Acetyl Coenzyme A; D020001:1-Butanol
keywords: Biofuels; Butanol; Hybrid; Hyperthermophile; Module; Pathway