Methods and compositions for producing olefins
View Patent ↗Compositions and methods for producing olefins are described herein. The olefins can be used to produced biofuels.
1. A recombinant host cell engineered to produce an olefin,
comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or SEQ ID NO: 5, wherein the polypeptide has fatty acid decarboxylase activity.
2. The recombinant host cell of claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide sequence is endogenous to the microorganism.
3. The recombinant host cell of claim 1 , wherein the polynucleotide sequence is heterologous to the microorganism.
4. The recombinant host cell of claim 1 , wherein the recombinant host cell expresses an increased level of the polypeptide having fatty acid decarboxylase activity relative to a corresponding wild-type host cell.
5. The recombinant host cell of claim 1 , wherein a gene encoding an acyl-CoA synthase is attenuated or deleted in the host cell and wherein the host cell expresses a reduced level of an acyl-CoA synthase relative to a corresponding wild type microorganism.
6. The recombinant host cell of claim 5 , wherein the acyl-CoA synthase gene is fadD.
7. The recombinant host cell of claim 6 , wherein the recombinant host cell expresses is engineered to express, overexpress, or attenuate expression of a thioesterase to increase fatty acid substrate production.
8. A cell culture comprising the recombinant host cell of claim 6 , wherein an olefin is produced in the cell culture when the recombinant host cell is cultured in medium containing a substrate under conditions effective to express the polypeptide having fatty acid decarboxylase activity.
9. The cell culture of claim 7 , wherein the olefin is a terminal olefin.
10. The cell culture of claim 8 , wherein the olefin is secreted by the host cell.
11. The cell culture of claim 9 , wherein the terminal olefin is selected from the group consisting of a C 5 -C 25 terminal olefin, a C 13 -C 21 terminal olefin, nonadecene, methylnonadecene, heptadecene, methylheptadecene, and pentadecene, an unsaturated terminal olefin, a monounsaturated terminal olefin, a straight chain terminal olefin, a branched chain terminal olefin, and a terminal olefin comprising a cyclic moiety.
12. The cell culture of claim 7 , wherein the substrate is a fatty acid.
13. The cell culture of claim 11 , wherein the fatty acid is selected from the group consisting of a C 6 -C 26 fatty acid, a C 14 -C 22 fatty acid, tetradecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid, behenic acid, methyl eicosanoic acid, eicosanoic acid, methyl octadecanoic acid, stearic acid, and palmitic acid, an unsaturated fatty acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid, a saturated fatty acid, a straight chain fatty acid, and a cyclic moiety.
14. A method of producing an olefin comprising culturing the host cell of claim 6 under conditions sufficient to allow expression of the fatty acid decarboxylase polypeptide.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising culturing the host cell in the presence of at least one biological substrate for the polypeptide.
16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising isolating the olefin from the host cell or from the culture medium.
17. An olefin produced by the method of claim 13 , wherein the olefin has a δ 13 C selected from the group consisting of about −15.4 or greater, about −15.4 to about −10.9, and about −13.92 to about −13.84.
18. An olefin produced by the method of claim 13 , wherein the olefin has an f M 14 C selected from the group consisting of at least about 1.003, at least about 1.01, at least about 1.5, and about 1.111 to about 1.124.