Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Rational Pathway Engineering Of Type I Fatty Acid Synthase Allows The Biosynthesis Of Triacetic Acid Lactone From D-Glucose In Vivo, Wenjuan Zha, Zengyi Shao, John W. Frost, Huimin Zhao

Zengyi Shao

Metabolic pathway engineering is a powerful tool to synthesize structurally diverse and complex chemicals via genetic manipulation of multistep catalytic systems involved in cell metabolism. Here, we report the rational design of a fatty acid biosynthetic pathway, Brevibacterium ammoniagenes fatty acid synthase B (FAS-B), that allows the microbial synthesis of triacetic acid lactone (TAL) from an inexpensive feedstock, D-glucose. TAL can be chemically converted to phloroglucinol, which is a core structure for the synthesis of various high value bioactive compounds and energetic compounds such as 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB). Synthesis of phloroglucinol from d-glucose using this combined biological and chemical synthesis may …