title: Hydrocarbons, the advanced biofuels produced by different organisms, the evidence that alkanes in petroleum can be renewable.
abstract: It is generally regarded that the petroleum cannot be renewable. However, in recent years, it has been found that many marine cyanobacteria, some eubacteria, engineered Escherichia coli, some endophytic fungi, engineered yeasts, some marine yeasts, plants, and insects can synthesize hydrocarbons with different carbon lengths. If the organisms, especially some native microorganisms and engineered bacteria and yeasts, can synthesize and secret a large amount of hydrocarbons within a short period, alkanes in the petroleum can be renewable. It has been documented that there are eight pathways for hydrocarbon biosynthesis in different organisms. Unfortunately, most of native microorganisms, engineered E. coli and engineered yeasts, only synthesize a small amount of intracellular and extracellular hydrocarbons. Recently, Aureobasidium pullulans var. melanogenum isolated from a mangrove ecosystem has been found to be able to synthesize and secret over 21.5 g/l long-chain hydrocarbons with a yield of 0.275 g/g glucose and a productivity of 0.193 g/l/h within 5 days. The yeast may have highly potential applications in alkane production.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Yushan Road, No. 5, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Juan
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Zai-Chao
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Hai-Xiang
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Guang-Lei
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ching-Fu
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Zhen-Ming
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Chi
mesh_terms: D000473:Alkanes / Q000378:metabolism*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D056804:Biofuels / Q000382:microbiology*; D010578:Petroleum / Q000378:metabolism*; D015003:Yeasts / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000473:Alkanes; D056804:Biofuels; D010578:Petroleum