Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/153555

Title

Metabolic production of a novel polymer feedstock, 3-carboxy muconate, from vanillin

Author(s)

Gosling, Aaron;  Fowler, S. Jane;  O'Shea, Michael S.;  Straffon, Melissa;  Dumsday, Geoff;  Zachariou, Michael

Abstract

Vanillin can be produced on a commercial scale by depolymerising renewable lignin. One product of microbial metabolism of vanillin by common soil microbes, such as Acinetobacter baylyi, is a tricarboxylic acid with a butadiene backbone known as 3-carboxy muconate (3CM). Three enzymes, 4-hydroxy benzaldehyde dehydrogenase, vanillate monooxygenase and protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase, catalyse the biotransformation of vanillin to 3CM. These three enzymes were metabolically engineered into an Escherichia coli host, giving a biocatalyst that converted vanillin into 3CM. The biocatalyst was found to give 100% yield of 3CM from 1 mM of vanillin after 39 h. The rate-limiting reaction was identified as the conversion of vanillate to 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate catalysed by vanillate monooxygenase. Low expression of the reductase subunit of this enzyme was identified as contributing to the reduced rate of this reaction. Proof of principle of a novel application for 3CM was demonstrated when it was converted into a trimethyl ester derivative and copolymerised with styrene.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences

Source

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Vol. 90, no. 1 (Apr 2011), pp. 107-116

Publication year

2011

FOR Code(s)

05 Environmental Sciences;  06 Biological Sciences;  10 Technology

Keyword(s)

3-carboxy muconate;  Acinetobacter baylyi;  Biocatalysis;  Metabolic engineering;  Unsaturated polyester;  Vanillin

Publisher

Springer

ISSN

0175-7598

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3078-1

Copyright

Copyright © Springer-Verlag 2011.

Peer reviewed