Microbial production of fatty-acid-derived fuels and chemicals from plant biomass

Eric J. Steen, Yisheng Kang, Gregory Bokinsky, Zhihao Hu, Andreas Schirmer, Amy McClure, Stephen B. del Cardayre () and Jay D. Keasling ()
Additional contact information
Eric J. Steen: Joint BioEnergy Institute,
Yisheng Kang: Joint BioEnergy Institute,
Gregory Bokinsky: Joint BioEnergy Institute,
Zhihao Hu: LS9, Inc., 100 Kimball Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
Andreas Schirmer: LS9, Inc., 100 Kimball Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
Amy McClure: LS9, Inc., 100 Kimball Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
Stephen B. del Cardayre: LS9, Inc., 100 Kimball Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
Jay D. Keasling: Joint BioEnergy Institute,

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7280, 559-562

Abstract: Making more of biomass Plant and animal oils are the raw materials for the manufacture of many biofuels, surfactants, solvents and lubricants. The growing demand and limited supply of these oils is resulting in competition with food, rising prices and environmental concerns associated with their production. A sustainable alternative is to produce these products directly from abundant and cost-effective renewable resources by fermentation. Jay Keasling and colleagues have developed a promising way of doing just that. They engineer Escherichia coli bacteria to produce more complex biofuels — fatty esters and fatty alcohols — direct from simple sugars. They go on to further engineer the E. coli to secrete hemi-cellulases, so that the bacteria can produce these potential biofuels direct from hemicellulose, a major component of plant-derived biomass.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08721

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