Sunday, May 4, 2008 - 4:30 PM
2-05

De novo biocatalyst design: an alternative strategy for the petroleum-free synthesis of biobutanol

Effendi Leonard and Kristala Jones Prather. Chemical Engineering, MIT, 77 Massachusetts ave., Bldg 66-425, Boston, MA 02139

Butanol production relies on petroleum-based syntheses since the challenges in improving natural biocatalysts hinder the efficient synthesis starting from renewable biomass. An alternative biocatalyst was developed to allow butanol synthesis using Escherichia coli. The engineering of the biocatalyst entails the simultaneous introduction of the multi-gene butanol biosynthetic pathway of solventogenic Clostridium. To improve the functionality of the engineered pathway, the expression of a synthetic gene encoding for a rate-limiting step enzyme was explored. Furthermore, to elicit high productivity, the native metabolism of the butanol-producer strain was reprogrammed to direct carbon flow and cofactor regeneration. The synergistic combination of the de novo pathway constructions enabled the synthesis of butanol. Manipulability of such synthetic biocatalyst can circumvent impediment of the biochemical synthesis of butanol from renewable feedstock.

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