Abstract
Styrene is a large volume, commodity petrochemical with diverse commercial applications, including as a monomer building-block for the synthesis of many useful polymers. Here we demonstrate how, through the de novo design and development of a novel metabolic pathway, styrene can alternatively be synthesized from renewable substrates such as glucose. The conversion of endogenously synthesized l-phenylalanine to styrene was achieved by the co-expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase and trans-cinnamate decarboxylase. Candidate isoenzymes for each step were screened from bacterial, yeast, and plant genetic sources. Finally, over-expression of PAL2 from Arabidopsis thaliana and FDC1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (originally classified as ferulate decarboxylase) in an l-phenylalanine over-producing Escherichia coli host led to the accumulation of up to 260. mg/L in shake flask cultures. Achievable titers already approach the styrene toxicity threshold (determined as ∼300. mg/L). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of microbial styrene production from sustainable feedstocks.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 544-554 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Metabolic Engineering |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2011 |
Keywords
- Aromatic
- Cinnamic acid
- E. coli
- L-Phenylalanine
- Phenylalanine ammonia lyase
- Styrene
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Biotechnology
- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology