Provided herein are methods, compositions, and non-naturally occurring microbial organism for preparing compounds such as 1-butanol, butyric acid, succinic acid, 1,4-butanediol, 1-pentanol, pentanoic acid, glutaric acid, 1,5-pentanediol, 1-hexanol, hexanoic acid, adipic acid, 1,6-hexanediol, 6-hydroxy hexanoic acid, -Caprolactone, 6-amino-hexanoic acid, -Caprolactam, hexamethylenediamine, linear fatty acids and linear fatty alcohols that are between 7-25 carbons long, linear alkanes and linear -alkenes that are between 6-24 carbons long, sebacic acid and dodecanedioic acid comprising: a) converting a C.sub.N aldehyde and pyruvate to a C.sub.N+3 -hydroxyketone intermediate through an aldol addition; and b) converting the C.sub.N+3-hydroxyketone intermediate to the compounds through enzymatic steps, or a combination of enzymatic and chemical steps.

The invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a muconate pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a muconate pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce muconate. The muconate pathway including an enzyme selected from the group consisting of a beta-ketothiolase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA hydrolase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA transferase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA ligase, a 2-fumarylacetate reductase, a 2-fumarylacetate dehydrogenase, a trans-3-hydroxy-4-hexendioate dehydratase, a 2-fumarylacetate aminotransferase, a 2-fumarylacetate aminating oxidoreductase, a trans-3-amino-4-hexenoate deaminase, a beta-ketoadipate enol-lactone hydrolase, a muconolactone isomerase, a muconate cycloisomerase, a beta-ketoadipyl-CoA dehydrogenase, a 3-hydroxyadipyl-CoA dehydratase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA transferase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA hydrolase, a 2,3-dehydroadipyl-CoA ligase, a muconate reductase, a 2-maleylacetate reductase, a 2-maleylacetate dehydrogenase, a cis-3-hydroxy-4-hexendioate dehydratase, a 2-maleylacetate aminoatransferase, a 2-maleylacetate aminating oxidoreductase, a cis-3-amino-4-hexendioate deaminase, and a muconate cis/trans isomerase. Other muconate pathway enzymes also are provided. Additionally provided are methods of producing muconate.

A potent complement regulator is disclosed. The complement regulator comprises a complement regulatory region connected by a flexible linker to a multifunctional binding region that enables binding to C3b activation/inactivation products and/or oxidation end products, as well as to polyanionic surface markers on host cells. An embodiment of the invention utilizes factor H SCRs 1-4 as the complement regulatory region and factor H SCRs 19 and 20 as the multifunctional binding region, linked together by a poly-Gly linker at least 12 residues in length. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising the complement regulator and methods of using the complement regulator are also disclosed.