Production of succinic acid derivatives in Escherichia 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. 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.