Identification and microbial production of a terpene-based advanced biofuel

Rising petroleum costs, trade imbalances and environmental concerns have stimulated efforts to advance the microbial production of fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. Here we identify a novel biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel fuel, bisabolane, and engineer microbial platforms for the production...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2011-09, Vol.2 (1), p.483-483, Article 483
Main Authors: Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P., Ouellet, Mario, Chan, Rossana, Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila, Keasling, Jay D., Lee, Taek Soon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/61/338/318
639/638/224/906
639/638/92
Biodiesel fuels
Biofuels
Carbon
Diesel fuels
E coli
Engineering
Escherichia coli - metabolism
Ethanol
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrogenation
multidisciplinary
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Terpenes - metabolism
Yeast
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Summary:Rising petroleum costs, trade imbalances and environmental concerns have stimulated efforts to advance the microbial production of fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. Here we identify a novel biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel fuel, bisabolane, and engineer microbial platforms for the production of its immediate precursor, bisabolene. First, we identify bisabolane as an alternative to D2 diesel by measuring the fuel properties of chemically hydrogenated commercial bisabolene. Then, via a combination of enzyme screening and metabolic engineering, we obtain a more than tenfold increase in bisabolene titers in Escherichia coli to >900 mg l −1 . We produce bisabolene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (>900 mg l −1 ), a widely used platform for the production of ethanol. Finally, we chemically hydrogenate biosynthetic bisabolene into bisabolane. This work presents a framework for the identification of novel terpene-based advanced biofuels and the rapid engineering of microbial farnesyl diphosphate-overproducing platforms for the production of biofuels. Advanced biofuels with comparable properties to petroleum-based fuels could be microbially produced from lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, Escherichia coli is engineered to produce bisabolene, the immediate precursor of bisabolane, a biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms1494