Abstract
Living systems provide a promising approach to chemical synthesis, having been optimized by evolution to convert renewable carbon sources, such as glucose, into 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 dual 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 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 that enables 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. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1178-1185 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature chemistry |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Chemistry
- General Chemical Engineering