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Metabolic engineering of 1,3-propanediol production from glycerol and from sugars

Conference ·
OSTI ID:370941
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) is currently a specialty chemical, but it has the potential to become a large volume commodity chemical as a component of polypropylene terephthalate (PPT, also known as polytrimethylene terephthalate, PTT). The current commercial routes to 1,3-PD start from propylene or ethylene. The focus of this work is the development of routes to 1,3-PD from renewable substrates such as glycerol and sugars. Several naturally occurring bacteria ferment glycerol to 1,3-PD. Previously, we have cloned the 1,3-PD pathway genes from one such organism, Klebsiella pneumoniae. Here we report the construction of synthetic 1,3-PD operons and the expression of the 1,3-PD pathway in various host organisms. No known organisms produce 1,3-PD from sugars. We have investigated various strategies for the construction of organisms with a {open_quotes}sugars to 1,3-PD{close_quotes} pathway. One such strategy involves the use of a novel glycerol phosphatase.

OSTI ID:
370941
Report Number(s):
CONF-960376--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English