title: Biosynthesis of odd-chain fatty alcohols in Escherichia coli.
abstract: Engineered microbes offer the opportunity to design and implement artificial molecular pathways for renewable production of tailored chemical commodities. Targeted biosynthesis of odd-chain fatty alcohols is very challenging in microbe, due to the specificity of fatty acids synthase for two-carbon unit elongation. Here, we developed a novel strategy to directly tailor carbon number in fatty aldehydes formation step by incorporating α-dioxygenase (αDOX) from Oryza sativa (rice) into Escherichia coli αDOX oxidizes Cn fatty acids (even-chain) to form Cn-1 fatty aldehydes (odd-chain). Through combining αDOX with fatty acyl-acyl carrier protein (-ACP) thioesterase (TE) and aldehyde reductase (AHR), the medium odd-chain fatty alcohols profile (C11, C13, C15) was firstly established in E. coli. Also, medium even-chain alkanes (C12, C14) were obtained by substitution of AHR to aldehyde decarbonylase (AD). The titer of odd-chain fatty alcohols was improved from 7.4mg/L to 101.5mg/L in tube cultivation by means of fine-tuning endogenous fatty acyl-ACP TE (TesA'), αDOX, AHRs and the genes involved in fatty acids metabolism pathway. Through high cell density fed-batch fermentation, a titer of 1.95g/L odd-chain fatty alcohols was achieved, which was the highest reported titer in E. coli. Our system has greatly expanded the current microbial fatty alcohols profile that provides a new brand solution for producing complex and desired molecules in microbes.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China. Electronic address: caoyingxiu@163.com.
authors.forename: Ying-Xiu
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Wen-Hai
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Duo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Jin-Lai
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Ming-Zhu
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China. Electronic address: yjyuan@tju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ying-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000378:metabolism*; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005233:Fatty Alcohols; D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Even-chain alkane; Fatty acid biosynthesis; Odd-chain fatty alcohol; Synthetic biology; α-Dioxygenase