Provided herein is a non-naturally occurring microbial organism (NNOMO) having a methanol metabolic pathway (MMP) that can enhance the availability of reducing equivalents in the presence of methanol. Such reducing equivalents can be used to increase the product yield of organic compounds produced by the microbial organism, such as succinate. Also provided herein are methods for using such an organism to produce succinate.

The present disclosure provides engineered carboxyesterase enzymes that have the ability to catalyze amide bond formation. Also provided are polynucleotides encoding the carboxyesterase enzymes, host cells capable of expressing the engineered carboxyesterase enzymes, and methods of using the engineered carboxyesterase enzymes to make commercially valuable amides. Also provided are amides that are made using the engineered carboxyesterase enzymes.

The present disclosure provides microbial organisms having increased availability of co-factors, such as NADPH, for increasing production of various products, including 1,3-BDO, MMA, (3R)-hydroxybutyl (3R)-hydroxybutyrate, amino acids, 3HB-CoA, adipate, caprolactam, 6-ACA, HMD A, or MAA, and products made from any of these. Also provided are one or more exogenous nucleic acids encoding an enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to increase availability of NADPH, where the exogenous nucleic acid includes one or more of ATP-NADH kinase, pntAB, nadK, and gapN. Also provided are one or more gene attenuations occurring in genes, such as NDH-2, that result in an increased ratio of NADPH to NADH. Various combinations of the exogenous nucleic acids and gene deletions are also provided in the present disclosure. The present disclosure also provides methods of making and using the same, including methods for culturing cells, and for the production of the various products.

Disclosed are a ketoreductase mutant and a method for producing a chiral alcohol. The ketoreductase mutant has an amino acid sequence obtained by the mutation of the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, and the mutation includes a mutation siteK200H. In the present disclosure, the mutant obtained by mutation takes a ketone compound as a raw material, the chiral alcohol may be efficiently produced by stereoselective reduction, and the stability is greatly improved, which is suitable for popularization and application to the industrial production of the chiral alcohol.

The present disclosure relates to biological processes and systems for the production of isopropanol and/or acetone utilizing modified alcohol dehydrogenases that exhibit increased activity with NADH as a cofactor. The disclosure further relates to polynucleotides and polypeptides of the modified alcohol dehydrogenases, and host cells containing the polynucleotides and expressing the polypeptides.

Provided are a microorganism that produces a diamine compound and a method of producing a diamine compound.

The genetically modified microorganism expresses an enzyme involved in synthesis of a diamine compound, in which the diamine compound is represented by Formula: H.sub.2N—R—NH.sub.2 (wherein, R is a chain or cyclic organic group comprised of one or more atoms selected from the group consisting of C, H, O, N, and S), and the genetically modified microorganism is modified to reduce an activity of an alcohol dehydrogenase compared to a non-reduced strain.

Provided is a method for measuring pentosidine in a specimen, the measurement method comprising the steps of: degrading the specimen with an amino acid degrading enzyme; contacting the specimen after the degradation step with a protein having activity that oxidatively degrades pentosidine; and detecting change resulting from the contact, wherein the amino acid degrading enzyme and the protein having activity that oxidatively degrades pentosidine are different from each other.

By using a mutant glucose oxidase comprising an amino acid sequence in which a residue corresponding to isoleucine at position 489 or arginine at position 335 in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 is substituted with an amino acid residue having a reactive functional group in a side chain, and binding an electron acceptor to the mutant glucose oxidase through the amino acid residue having a reactive functional group, an electron acceptor-modified glucose oxidase is obtained.

Provided herein are methods, compositions, and non-naturally occurring microbial organism for preparing compounds such as α-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, ε-Caprolactone, 6-amino-hexanoic acid, ε-Caprolactam, hexamethylenediamine, linear fatty acids and linear fatty alcohols that are between 7-25 carbons long, linear alkanes and linear α-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 β-hydroxyketone intermediate through an aldol addition; and b) converting the C.sub.N+3 β-hydroxyketone intermediate to the compounds through enzymatic steps, or a combination of enzymatic and chemical steps.

The present invention provides methods and compositions for increasing lignin degradation to produce a biological product. Also provided are methods for increasing expression of laccase in a bacterial species to produce increased lignin degradation. Also provided are bacterial cells and commodities or commodity produces produced from such methods.