Leveraging microbial biosynthetic pathways for the generation of ‘drop-in’ biofuels

Zargar, Amin; Bailey, Constance B.; Haushalter, Robert W.; Eiben, Christopher B.; Katz, Leonard; Keasling, Jay D.

doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2017.03.004

Leveraging microbial biosynthetic pathways for the generation of ‘drop-in’ biofuels

Journal Article · Mon Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Current Opinion in Biotechnology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2017.03.004· OSTI ID:1436998

Zargar, Amin ^[1]; Bailey, Constance B. ^[2]; Haushalter, Robert W. ^[2]; Eiben, Christopher B. ^[2]; Katz, Leonard ^[1]; Keasling, Jay D. ^[3]

Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Technical Univ. of Denmark, Horsholm (Denmark)

Advances in retooling microorganisms have enabled bioproduction of ‘drop-in’ biofuels, fuels that are compatible with existing spark-ignition, compression-ignition, and gasturbine engines. As the majority of petroleum consumption in the United States consists of gasoline (47%), diesel fuel and heating oil (21%), and jet fuel (8%), ‘drop-in’ biofuels that replace these petrochemical sources are particularly attractive. In this review, we discuss the application of aldehyde decarbonylases to produce gasoline substitutes from fatty acid products, a recently crystallized reductase that could hydrogenate jet fuel precursors from terpene synthases, and the exquisite control of polyketide synthases to produce biofuels with desired physical properties (e.g., lower freezing points). With our increased understanding of biosynthetic logic of metabolic pathways, we discuss the unique advantages of fatty acid, terpene, and polyketide synthases for the production of bio-based gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1436998

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1398632

Journal Information:: Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Journal Name: Current Opinion in Biotechnology Journal Issue: C Vol. 45; ISSN 0958-1669

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (57)

Influence on the performance and emissions of an automotive Euro 5 diesel engine fueled with F30 from Farnesane Millo, Federico; Bensaid, Samir; Fino, Debora Fuel, Vol. 138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.07.060	journal	December 2014
Constructing Tailored Isoprenoid Products by Structure-Guided Modification of Geranylgeranyl Reductase Kung, Yan; McAndrew, Ryan P.; Xie, Xinkai Structure, Vol. 22, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2014.05.007	journal	July 2014
Modular and selective biosynthesis of gasoline-range alkanes Sheppard, Micah J.; Kunjapur, Aditya M.; Prather, Kristala L. J. Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 33 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2015.10.010	journal	January 2016
Comprehensive in Vitro Analysis of Acyltransferase Domain Exchanges in Modular Polyketide Synthases and Its Application for Short-Chain Ketone Production Yuzawa, Satoshi; Deng, Kai; Wang, George ACS Synthetic Biology, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.6b00176	journal	September 2016
Partitioning of aromatic constituents into water from gasoline and other complex solvent mixtures Cline, Patricia V.; Delfino, Joseph J.; Rao, P. Suresh C. Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 25, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/es00017a013	journal	May 1991
Elucidation of the Cryptic Epimerase Activity of Redox-Inactive Ketoreductase Domains from Modular Polyketide Synthases by Tandem Equilibrium Isotope Exchange Garg, Ashish; Xie, Xinqiang; Keatinge-Clay, Adrian Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 136, Issue 29 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja5056998	journal	July 2014
Methyltransferases excised from trans-AT polyketide synthases operate on N-acetylcysteamine-bound substrates Stevens, D. Cole; Wagner, Drew T.; Manion, Hannah R. The Journal of Antibiotics, Vol. 69, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/ja.2016.66	journal	June 2016
Synthesis of customized petroleum-replica fuel molecules by targeted modification of free fatty acid pools in Escherichia coli Howard, T. P.; Middelhaufe, S.; Moore, K. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1215966110	journal	April 2013
Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies Pacala, S. Science, Vol. 305, Issue 5686 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100103	journal	August 2004
Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt Fargione, J.; Hill, J.; Tilman, D. Science, Vol. 319, Issue 5867 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1152747	journal	February 2008
Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes Schirmer, A.; Rude, M. A.; Li, X. Science, Vol. 329, Issue 5991, p. 559-562 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1187936	journal	July 2010
Acute Limonene Toxicity in Escherichia coli Is Caused by Limonene Hydroperoxide and Alleviated by a Point Mutation in Alkyl Hydroperoxidase AhpC Chubukov, Victor; Mingardon, Florence; Schackwitz, Wendy Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 81, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01102-15	journal	May 2015
Engineering improved bio-jet fuel tolerance in Escherichia coli using a transgenic library from the hydrocarbon-degrader Marinobacter aquaeolei Tomko, Timothy A.; Dunlop, Mary J. Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-015-0347-3	journal	October 2015
Divergent Mechanistic Routes for the Formation of gem -Dimethyl Groups in the Biosynthesis of Complex Polyketides Poust, Sean; Phelan, Ryan M.; Deng, Kai Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 54, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201410124	journal	January 2015
Kinetic modeling of free fatty acid production in Escherichia coli based on continuous cultivation of a plasmid free strain Youngquist, J. Tyler; Lennen, Rebecca M.; Ranatunga, Don R. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 109, Issue 6, p. 1518-1527 https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.24420	journal	January 2012
Alleviating monoterpene toxicity using a two-phase extractive fermentation for the bioproduction of jet fuel mixtures in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Brennan, Timothy C. R.; Turner, Christopher D.; Krömer, Jens O. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 109, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.24536	journal	May 2012
In vitro reconstitution of mevalonate pathway and targeted engineering of farnesene overproduction in Escherichia coli : In Vitro Reconstitution of Mevalonate Pathway Zhu, Fayin; Zhong, Xiaofang; Hu, Mengzhu Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 111, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.25198	journal	February 2014
Production of farnesene and santalene by Saccharomyces cerevisiae using fed-batch cultivations with RQ -controlled feed : Production of Farnesene and Santalene Tippmann, Stefan; Scalcinati, Gionata; Siewers, Verena Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 113, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.25683	journal	September 2015
Monoterpene biosynthesis pathway construction in Escherichia coli Carter, Ora A.; Peters, Reuben J.; Croteau, Rodney Phytochemistry, Vol. 64, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9422(03)00204-8	journal	September 2003
Synthetic biology for microbial production of lipid-based biofuels d’Espaux, Leo; Mendez-Perez, Daniel; Li, Rachel Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, Vol. 29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2015.09.009	journal	December 2015
Balancing a heterologous mevalonate pathway for improved isoprenoid production in Escherichia coli Pitera, Douglas J.; Paddon, Chris J.; Newman, Jack D. Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 9, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2006.11.002	journal	March 2007
Quantitative analysis and engineering of fatty acid biosynthesis in E. coli Liu, Tiangang; Vora, Harmit; Khosla, Chaitan Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2010.02.003	journal	July 2010
Carotenoid-based phenotypic screen of the yeast deletion collection reveals new genes with roles in isoprenoid production Özaydın, Bilge; Burd, Helcio; Lee, Taek Soon Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2012.07.010	journal	January 2013
Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for limonene and perillyl alcohol production Alonso-Gutierrez, Jorge; Chan, Rossana; Batth, Tanveer S. Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 19 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2013.05.004	journal	September 2013
Expanding the chemical diversity of natural esters by engineering a polyketide-derived pathway into Escherichia coli Menendez-Bravo, Simón; Comba, Santiago; Sabatini, Martín Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 24 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2014.05.002	journal	July 2014
Toward aldehyde and alkane production by removing aldehyde reductase activity in Escherichia coli Rodriguez, Gabriel M.; Atsumi, Shota Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 25 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2014.07.012	journal	September 2014
Engineering an iterative polyketide pathway in Escherichia coli results in single-form alkene and alkane overproduction Liu, Qian; Wu, Kaiyue; Cheng, Yongbo Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 28 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2014.12.004	journal	March 2015
Development of an orthogonal fatty acid biosynthesis system in E. coli for oleochemical production Haushalter, Robert W.; Groff, Dan; Deutsch, Samuel Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 30 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2015.04.003	journal	July 2015
Heterologous biosynthesis and manipulation of alkanes in Escherichia coli Cao, Ying-Xiu; Xiao, Wen-Hai; Zhang, Jin-Lai Metabolic Engineering, Vol. 38 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2016.06.002	journal	November 2016
Engineering a Polyketide Synthase for In Vitro Production of Adipic Acid Hagen, Andrew; Poust, Sean; Rond, Tristan de ACS Synthetic Biology, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5b00153	journal	November 2015
Oxygen-Independent Alkane Formation by Non-Heme Iron-Dependent Cyanobacterial Aldehyde Decarbonylase: Investigation of Kinetics and Requirement for an External Electron Donor Eser, Bekir E.; Das, Debasis; Han, Jaehong Biochemistry, Vol. 50, Issue 49 https://doi.org/10.1021/bi2012417	journal	December 2011
Evidence for Only Oxygenative Cleavage of Aldehydes to Alk(a/e)nes and Formate by Cyanobacterial Aldehyde Decarbonylases Li, Ning; Chang, Wei-chen; Warui, Douglas M. Biochemistry, Vol. 51, Issue 40 https://doi.org/10.1021/bi300912n	journal	September 2012
Erythromycin Biosynthesis: Kinetic Studies on a Fully Active Modular Polyketide Synthase Using Natural and Unnatural Substrates ^† Pieper, Rembert; Ebert-Khosla, Susanne; Cane, David Biochemistry, Vol. 35, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/bi952860b	journal	January 1996
High-Density Renewable Fuels Based on the Selective Dimerization of Pinenes Harvey, Benjamin G.; Wright, Michael E.; Quintana, Roxanne L. Energy & Fuels, Vol. 24, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/ef900799c	journal	January 2010
Expanding the Product Profile of a Microbial Alkane Biosynthetic Pathway Harger, Matthew; Zheng, Lei; Moon, Austin ACS Synthetic Biology, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/sb300061x	journal	September 2012
Microbial Synthesis of Pinene Sarria, Stephen; Wong, Betty; Martín, Hector García ACS Synthetic Biology, Vol. 3, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/sb4001382	journal	November 2013
Engineering Terpene Biosynthesis in Streptomyces for Production of the Advanced Biofuel Precursor Bisabolene Phelan, Ryan M.; Sekurova, Olga N.; Keasling, Jay D. ACS Synthetic Biology, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/sb5002517	journal	July 2014
Microbial production of fatty-acid-derived fuels and chemicals from plant biomass Steen, Eric J.; Kang, Yisheng; Bokinsky, Gregory Nature, Vol. 463, Issue 7280, p. 559-562 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08721	journal	January 2010
Microbial production of short-chain alkanes Choi, Yong Jun; Lee, Sang Yup Nature, Vol. 502, Issue 7472 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12536	journal	September 2013
Engineering a mevalonate pathway in Escherichia coli for production of terpenoids Martin, Vincent J. J.; Pitera, Douglas J.; Withers, Sydnor T. Nature Biotechnology, Vol. 21, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt833	journal	June 2003
Identification and microbial production of a terpene-based advanced biofuel Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P.; Ouellet, Mario; Chan, Rossana Nature Communications, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1494	journal	September 2011
Modular optimization of multi-gene pathways for fatty acids production in E. coli Xu, Peng; Gu, Qin; Wang, Wenya Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2425	journal	January 2013
An engineered pathway for the biosynthesis of renewable propane Kallio, Pauli; Pásztor, András; Thiel, Kati Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5731	journal	September 2014
Fuelling the future: microbial engineering for the production of sustainable biofuels Liao, James C.; Mi, Luo; Pontrelli, Sammy Nature Reviews Microbiology, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.32	journal	March 2016
Production of long chain alcohols and alkanes upon coexpression of an acyl-ACP reductase and aldehyde-deformylating oxygenase with a bacterial type-I fatty acid synthase in E. coli Coursolle, Dan; Lian, Jiazhang; Shanklin, John Molecular BioSystems, Vol. 11, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5MB00268K	journal	January 2015
α-Methylation follows condensation in the gephyronic acid modular polyketide synthase Wagner, Drew T.; Stevens, D. Cole; Mehaffey, M. Rachel Chemical Communications, Vol. 52, Issue 57 https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CC04418B	journal	January 2016
The type I fatty acid and polyketide synthases: a tale of two megasynthases Smith, Stuart; Tsai, Shiou-Chuan Natural Product Reports, Vol. 24, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1039/b603600g	journal	January 2007
Carboxylic acid reductase is a versatile enzyme for the conversion of fatty acids into fuels and chemical commodities Akhtar, M. K.; Turner, N. J.; Jones, P. R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 1, p. 87-92 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216516110	journal	December 2012
Frontiers in microbial 1-butanol and isobutanol production Chen, Chang-Ting; Liao, James C. FEMS Microbiology Letters, Vol. 363, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnw020	journal	January 2016
Engineering the acyltransferase substrate specificity of assembly line polyketide synthases Dunn, Briana J.; Khosla, Chaitan Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Vol. 10, Issue 85 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.0297	journal	August 2013
Modular Synthase-Encoding Gene Involved in α-Olefin Biosynthesis in Synechococcus sp. Strain PCC 7002 Mendez-Perez, Daniel; Begemann, Matthew B.; Pfleger, Brian F. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 77, Issue 12, p. 4264-4267 https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00467-11	journal	April 2011
Acute Limonene Toxicity in Escherichia coli Is Caused by Limonene Hydroperoxide and Alleviated by a Point Mutation in Alkyl Hydroperoxidase AhpC Chubukov, Victor; Mingardon, Florence; Schackwitz, Wendy Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 81, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01102-15	journal	May 2015
Production of extracellular fatty acid using engineered Escherichia coli Liu, Hui; Yu, Chao; Feng, Dexin Microbial Cell Factories, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2859-11-41	journal	January 2012
Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the biosynthesis of alpha-pinene Yang, Jianming; Nie, Qingjuan; Ren, Meng Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-6-60	journal	January 2013
Engineering acyl carrier protein to enhance production of shortened fatty acids Liu, Xueliang; Hicks, Wade M.; Silver, Pamela A. Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-016-0430-4	journal	February 2016
Engineering improved bio-jet fuel tolerance in Escherichia coli using a transgenic library from the hydrocarbon-degrader Marinobacter aquaeolei Tomko, Timothy; Dunlop, Mary Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3627791	collection	January 2015
Engineering acyl carrier protein to enhance production of shortened fatty acids Liu, Xueliang; Hicks, Wade; Silver, Pamela Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3630740.v1	collection	January 2016

Cited By (7)

Principles and practice of designing microbial biocatalysts for fuel and chemical production Shanmugam, K. T.; Ingram, Lonnie O. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 49, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab016	journal	March 2021
Isolation and Characterization of Bacterial Cellulase Producers for Biomass Deconstruction: A Microbiology Laboratory Course Barajas, Jesus F.; Wehrs, Maren; To, Milton Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol. 20, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1723	journal	January 2019
Modular pathway engineering for the microbial production of branched-chain fatty alcohols Jiang, Wen; Qiao, James B.; Bentley, Gayle J. Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-017-0936-4	journal	October 2017
Stepwise metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli to produce triacylglycerol rich in medium-chain fatty acids Xu, Lin; Wang, Lian; Zhou, Xue-Rong Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1177-x	journal	June 2018
History, Current State, and Emerging Applications of Industrial Biotechnology Schürrle, Karsten Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment in Industrial Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.1007/10_2018_81	book	January 2019
Technical Advances to Accelerate Modular Type I Polyketide Synthase Engineering towards a Retro-biosynthetic Platform Pang, Bo; Valencia, Luis E.; Wang, Jessica Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, Vol. 24, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-019-0083-9	journal	June 2019
Conserved principles of transcriptional networks controlling metabolic flexibility in archaea Schmid, Amy K. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, Vol. 2, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1042/etls20180036	journal	December 2018

Similar Records

Vaporization modeling of petroleum-biofuel drops using a hybrid multi-component approach

Journal Article · Sun Nov 14 23:00:00 EST 2010 · Combustion and Flame · OSTI ID:21379822

Biofuels combustion*

Journal Article · Thu Jan 03 19:00:00 EST 2013 · Annual Review of Physical Chemistry · OSTI ID:1305865

Biofuels Fuels Technology Pathway Options for Advanced Drop-in Biofuels Production

Technical Report · Wed Aug 31 20:00:00 EDT 2011 · OSTI ID:1034799

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS

Leveraging microbial biosynthetic pathways for the generation of ‘drop-in’ biofuels

Citation Formats

References (57)

Cited By (7)

Similar Records

Related Subjects