P150: Metabolic engineering for the production of 3-hydroxyproprionic acid from malonyl-CoA

As the demand for fuels and chemicals increases, their production from renewable feedstocks by fermentation becomes a more critical means of supplementing or even replacing traditionally petroleum-based products.  Many commercial products may be derived from the core metabolic precursor, malonyl-CoA, including fatty acids (and hence long chain alkanes), polyketides including pharmaceuticals, and 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP), a precursor of the industrial monomer acrylic acid.  However, metabolic engineering is often required to construct microorganisms with the ability to produce compounds not normally the end-product of metabolism and to redirect metabolic flow towards the desired endpoint.  We have engineered a microorganism for the production of 3-HP. A key focus of the strain development centered on increasing the cellular pools of malonyl-CoA, the first committed intermediate for the 3-HP production pathway. This engineered micro-organism and bioprocess is capable of producing commercially relevant rates, titers, and yields of 3-HP, which enable the large scale production of biologically derived acrylic acid at production costs competitive with petroleum based sources .