S157a: Exploiting the metabolic plasticity of fatty acid catabolism

Availability of fatty acid (FA)-rich feedstocks and recent progress in the development of oil-accumulating organisms make FAs an attractive alternative to carbohydrates for the biological production of fuels and chemicals. The utilization of FAs in E. coli is mediated by enzymes encoded by the fad regulon and the ato operon. Products of the fad regulon mediate the transport, acylation, and β-oxidation of medium-chain (C7 to C11) and long-chain (C12 to C18) FAs. Two additional enzymes encoded by the atoD-atoA and atoB genes (part of the atoDAEB operon) are also required for the growth of E. coli on short-chain FAs (C4 to C6). The expression of the fad regulon and ato operon are controlled by FadR (fadR) and AtoC (atoC), respectively. We recently reported the metabolic engineering of native and heterologous pathways for the efficient catabolism of FAs and the synthesis of fuels and chemicals in E. coli (Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2010, 76 (15): 5067-5078). In this talk we will discuss our recent efforts on the engineering of a functional reversal of fatty acid catabolism as a metabolic platform for the efficient synthesis of higher-chain fuels and chemicals.