Metabolic Engineering of E. coli for the Production of Non-Natural Polymers

Polyhydroxyalkanoates are natural polyesters accumulated by numerous microorganisms. The key enzymes involved are an enzyme that generates hydroxyalkanoyl-CoAs and a synthase that polymerizes hydroxyalkanoyl-CoAs. Non-natural polymers such as poly(lactic acid) and other lactate-containing polymers are of great interest, but they cannot synthesized by natural microorganisms. In this lecture, I will describe our recent works on metabolic engineering of E. coli for the production of various lactate-containing polymers by one-step fermentation. Strategies for establishing new pathways and merging fluxes coming from different sources will be described.