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.

The present disclosure relates to a non-naturally occurring microorganism that includes an endogenous genetic deletion that eliminates the expression of at least a pyruvate kinase, where the genetically modified prokaryotic microorganism is capable of producing 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate.

The present disclosure provides engineered ketoreductase enzymes having improved properties as compared to a naturally occurring wild-type ketoreductase enzyme. Also provided are polynucleotides encoding the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, host cells capable of expressing the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, and methods of using the engineered ketoreductase enzymes to synthesize a variety of chiral compounds. The engineered ketoreductase polypeptides are optimized for catalyzing the conversion of N-methyl-3-keto-3-(2-thienyl)-1-propanamine to (S)—N-methyl-3-hydroxy-3-(2-thienyl)-1-propanamine.

A combination of an electrochemical device for delivering reducing equivalents to a cell, and engineered metabolic pathways within the cell capable of utilizing the electrochemically provided reducing equivalents is disclosed. Such a combination allows the production of commodity chemicals by fermentation to proceed with increased carbon efficiency.

A nanoparticle (for example, quantum dot) serves as a substrate for immobilizing enzymes involved in consecutive reactions as a cascade. This results in a significant increase in the rate of catalysis as well as final product yield compared to non-immobilized enzymes.

Disclosed is a method for producing 3-fucosyllactose using a wild Corynebacterium glutamicum strain. In addition, using the Corynebacterium glutamicum strain, which is a GRAS strain, 3-fucosyllactose can be produced at a high concentration, high yield and high productivity.

Described herein is a method for producing a transgenic cell product wherein the gene of interest is operably linked to an inducible promoter other than AOX1. Production of the transgenic cell product is activated when the host cell is grown on a non-repressing carbon source for de-repressing the inducible promoter and an amount of an inducer compound selected from the group consisting of: formaldehyde; S-formylglutathione; S-hydroxymethyl glutathione; formic acid; an alkali metal salt of formic acid; and an alkaline earth metal salt of formic acid; sufficient to induce the inducible promoter is added to the host cell culture.

The present invention relates to compositions comprising one or more polypeptide(s) comprising or consisting of a sequence of SEQ ID NO. 1-14 or a sequence having a sequence identity of at least 75% to any one of SEQ ID NO. 1-14 and a carrier as well as uses and methods of these polypeptides.

The present invention relates to a composition or combination for the production of butanol and isopropanol, comprising an acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE)-producing Clostridium strain and a genetically engineered B. subtilis strain, wherein said genetically engineered B. subtilis strain has been transformed by at least one polynucleotide molecule; the at least one polynucleotide molecule comprising a secondary alcohol dehydrogenase gene operably linked to at least one promoter. The invention also relates to methods of producing butanol and isopropanol in a co-culture, methods of producing butyrate, isopropanol and butanol in a co-culture and methods of producing esters.