Paper

A Hybrid Cellular-Heterogeneous Catalyst Strategy for the Production of Olefins from Glucose

Min, Yejin, Kumar, Gaurav, Song, Heng, Chang, Michelle C Y, Wang, Zhen Q, Dauenhauer, Paul J, Hara, Noritaka, Dae Sung Park

2020

Overview

Abstract Living systems provide a promising approach to chemical synthesis, having been optimized by evolution to convert renewable carbon sources such as glucose to an enormous range of small molecules. However, a large number of synthetic structures can still be difficult to obtain solely from cells, such as unsubstituted hydrocarbons. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a hybrid cellular-heterogeneous catalytic strategy to produce olefins from glucose, using a selective hydrolase to generate an activated intermediate that is readily deoxygenated. Using a new family of iterative thiolase enzymes, we have genetically engineered a microbial strain that produces 4.3 ± 0.4 g L−1 of fatty acid from glucose with 86% captured as 3-hydroxyoctanoic and 3-hydroxydecanoic acids. This 3-hydroxy substituent serves as a leaving group enabling heterogeneous tandem decarboxylation-dehydration routes to olefinic products on Lewis acidic catalysts without the additional redox input required for enzymatic or chemical deoxygenation of simple fatty acids. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Subject: Carbon sources / Catalysts / Decarboxylation / Dehydration / Fatty acids / Genetic engineering / Glucose / Hydrolase / Synthetic Biology / Thiolase