Metabolic Engineering of production of 1,4-butanediol in Esherichia coli

Abstract

1,4-butanediol (1,4-BDO) is used industrially as a solvent and a raw material in manufacturing plastics, elastic fibers and films, and has one of the largest markets in the succinic acid derivatives.Recently, the interest has been focused on the bio-based 1,4-BDO production which is more environmental friendly process and can also save a large amount of energy compared to the chemical processes. In this study, the 1,4-BDO producing strain was constructed by introducing new synthetic pathways to Escherichia coli which does not naturally produce it. As succinic acid is one of the major fermentative end products in the CO2-rich atmosphere, the new synthetic route was constructed from succinic acid as a starting metabolic intermediate. This study will also provide a general strategy to produce various succinic acid derivatives by constructing the new synthetic pathways from succinic acid to 1,4-BDO in detail.