Biocatalytic production of adipic acid from glucose using engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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DOI

  • Kaushik Raj
    University of Toronto
  • Siavash Partow
    University of Toronto
  • Kevin Correia
    University of Toronto
  • Anna N Khusnutdinova
    Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry University of Toronto Toronto CanadaUniversity of Toronto
  • Alexander F Yakunin
    University of Toronto
  • Radhakrishnan Mahadevan
    University of Toronto

Adipic acid is an important industrial chemical used in the synthesis of nylon-6,6. The commercial synthesis of adipic acid uses petroleum-derived benzene and releases significant quantities of greenhouse gases. Biocatalytic production of adipic acid from renewable feedstocks could potentially reduce the environmental damage and eliminate the need for fossil fuel precursors. Recently, we have demonstrated the first enzymatic hydrogenation of muconic acid to adipic acid using microbial enoate reductases (ERs) - complex iron-sulfur and flavin containing enzymes. In this work, we successfully expressed the Bacillus coagulans ER in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain producing muconic acid and developed a three-stage fermentation process enabling the synthesis of adipic acid from glucose. The ability to express active ERs and significant acid tolerance of S. cerevisiae highlight the applicability of the developed yeast strain for the biocatalytic production of adipic acid from renewable feedstocks.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)28-32
Number of pages5
JournalMetabolic engineering communications
Volume6
Early online date3 Feb 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018
Externally publishedYes
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