초록
<▼1><P>Aromatic polyesters are widely used plastics currently produced from petroleum. Here we engineer <I>Escherichia coli</I> strains for the production of aromatic polyesters from glucose by one-step fermentation. When the <I>Clostridium difficile</I> isocaprenoyl-CoA:2-hydroxyisocaproate CoA-transferase (HadA) and evolved polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase genes are overexpressed in a <SMALL>D</SMALL>-phenyllactate-producing strain, poly(52.3 mol% 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB)-<I>co</I>-47.7 mol% <SMALL>D</SMALL>-phenyllactate) can be produced from glucose and sodium 3HB. Also, various poly(3HB-<I>co</I>-<SMALL>D</SMALL>-phenyllactate) polymers having 11.0, 15.8, 20.0, 70.8, and 84.5 mol% of <SMALL>D</SMALL>-phenyllactate are produced from glucose as a sole carbon source by additional expression of <I>Ralstonia eutropha</I> β-ketothiolase (<I>phaA</I>) and reductase (<I>phaB</I>) genes. Fed-batch culture of this engineered strain produces 13.9 g l<SUP>−1</SUP> of poly(61.9 mol% 3HB-<I>co-</I>38.1 mol% <SMALL>D</SMALL>-phenyllactate). Furthermore, different aromatic polyesters containing <SMALL>D</SMALL>-mandelate and <SMALL>D-</SMALL>3-hydroxy-3-phenylpropionate are produced from glucose when feeding the corresponding monomers. The engineered bacterial system will be useful for one-step fermentative production of aromatic polyesters from renewable resources.</P></▼1><▼2><P>Fermentative production of aromatic polyesters from glucose has been unsuccessful. Here, the authors achieve the objective by one-step fermentation of metabolically engineered <I>E. coli</I> expressing a isocaprenoyl-CoA:2-hydroxyisocaproate CoA-transferase and an evolved polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase.</P></▼2>