Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California 94608, USA.
Nature. 2010 Jan 28;463(7280):559-62. doi: 10.1038/nature08721.
Increasing energy costs and environmental concerns have emphasized the need to produce sustainable renewable fuels and chemicals. Major efforts to this end are focused on the microbial production of high-energy fuels by cost-effective 'consolidated bioprocesses'. Fatty acids are composed of long alkyl chains and represent nature's 'petroleum', being a primary metabolite used by cells for both chemical and energy storage functions. These energy-rich molecules are today isolated from plant and animal oils for a diverse set of products ranging from fuels to oleochemicals. A more scalable, controllable and economic route to this important class of chemicals would be through the microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks, such as biomass-derived carbohydrates. Here we demonstrate the engineering of Escherichia coli to produce structurally tailored fatty esters (biodiesel), fatty alcohols, and waxes directly from simple sugars. Furthermore, we show engineering of the biodiesel-producing cells to express hemicellulases, a step towards producing these compounds directly from hemicellulose, a major component of plant-derived biomass.
能源成本的不断增加和环境问题促使人们需要生产可持续的可再生燃料和化学品。为此，人们主要致力于通过具有成本效益的“综合生物工艺”来实现微生物生产高能燃料。脂肪酸由长烷基链组成，代表着自然界的“石油”，是细胞用于化学和能量储存功能的主要代谢物。这些高能量分子今天从植物和动物油脂中分离出来，用于生产从燃料到油脂化学品的各种产品。通过微生物转化可再生原料（如生物质衍生的碳水化合物）来生产这类重要化学品的方法更具可扩展性、可控性和经济性。在这里，我们展示了对大肠杆菌的工程改造，使其能够直接从简单的糖中生产结构定制的脂肪酸酯（生物柴油）、脂肪酸醇和蜡。此外，我们还展示了生物柴油生产细胞的工程改造，使其表达半纤维素酶，这是直接从植物衍生生物量的主要成分半纤维素生产这些化合物的重要一步。
