Methods, compositions, and cells for generating acyl alcohols. Compositions comprising acyl alcohols. Methods of cleaving acyl amino acids and/or acyl alcohols to generate free fatty acids, free amino acids, and/or free alcohols.

A method for producing a pumpable slurry from a cellulose-containing feedstock is presented herein.

The disclosed subject matter relates generally to a method for modifying oil, and specifically to a process for increasing the concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acid in an oil composition.

A method of increasing production of fatty acids comprising introducing into a host and expressing therein an acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase (TE) from Bryantella formatexigens or a mutant thereof; a method of making a mutant B. formatexigens acyl-ACP TE; a method of making a chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a mutant acyl-ACP TE or a chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a host comprising the nucleic acid molecule; a mutant acyl-ACP TE or chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a method of altering the specificity of a plant acyl-ACP TE for at least one of its substrates comprising introducing into the plant acyl-ACP TE a substrate specificity-altering mutation; and a method of altering the level of activity of a plant acyl-ACP TE.

It has been found that esterification of a hydroxy-fatty acid by a lipase can be coupled with oleate hydratase (OHase) generation of that hydroxy-FA from an unsaturated FA with a cis C9-C10 double bond, e.g. oleic acid, in a single aqueous buffered reaction medium at low temperature,e.g. 30 C. A simple one-pot enzymatic method to produce fatty acid estolides from one or more triglycerides, e.g. starting from a natural plant oil, is thereby enabled in which the same lipase catalyses both the initial hydrolysis of triglyceride and the final esterification step.

The disclosed subject matter relates generally to a method for modifying oil, and specifically to a process for increasing the concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acid in an oil composition.

A method of increasing production of fatty acids comprising introducing into a host and expressing therein an acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase (TE) from Bryantella formatexigens or a mutant thereof; a method of making a mutant B. formatexigens acyl-ACP TE; a method of making a chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a mutant acyl-ACP TE or a chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a host comprising the nucleic acid molecule; a mutant acyl-ACP TE or chimeric Cuphea viscosissima acyl-ACP TE; a method of altering the specificity of a plant acyl-ACP TE for at least one of its substrates comprising introducing into the plant acyl-ACP TE a substrate specificity-altering mutation; and a method of altering the level of activity of a plant acyl-ACP TE.

Disclosed herein are methods of manufacturing renewable chemicals through the manufacture of novel triglyceride oils followed by chemical modification of the oils. Methods such as transesterification, hydrogenation, hydrocracking, deoxygenation, isomerization, interesterification, hydroxylation, hydrolysis and saponification are disclosed. Novel oils containing fatty acid chain lengths of C8, C10, C12 or C14 are also disclosed and are useful as feedstocks in the methods of the invention.

A method and system for efficiently producing a fermentative product alcohol such as butanol utilizing in situ product extraction are provided. The efficiency is obtained through separating undissolved solids after liquefying a given feedstock to create a feedstock and prior to fermentation, for example, through centrifugation. Removal of the undissolved solids avoids problems associated with having the undissolved solids present during in situ production extraction, and thereby increases the efficiency of the alcohol production.

Described herein are genetically-modified microorganisms for producing medium chain lauric acid and/or dodecanedioic acid and methods of using the microorganisms. The microorganisms contain a nucleic acid encoding an Umbellularia californica lauroyl ACP-thioesterase (BTE) operably linked to a promoter.