A novel muconic acid biosynthesis approach by shunting tryptophan biosynthesis via anthranilate.

ABSTRACT: Muconic acid is the synthetic precursor of adipic acid, and the latter is an important platform chemical that can be used for the production of nylon-6,6 and polyurethane. Currently, the production of adipic acid relies mainly on chemical processes utilizing petrochemicals, such as benzene, which are generally considered environmentally unfriendly and nonrenewable, as starting materials. Microbial synthesis from renewable carbon sources provides a promising alternative under the circumstance of petroleum depletion and environment deterioration. Here we devised a novel artificial pathway in Escherichia coli for the biosynthesis of muconic acid, in which anthranilate, the first intermediate in the tryptophan biosynthetic branch, was converted to catechol and muconic acid by anthranilate 1,2-

SUBMITTER: Sun X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3697559 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature