The invention provides a method for producing a terpene or a precursor thereof by microbial fermentation. Typically, the method involves culturing a recombinant bacterium in the presence of a gaseous substrate whereby the bacterium produces a terpene or a precursor thereof, such as mevalonic acid, isopentenyl pyrophosphate, dimethylallyl pyrophosphate, isoprene, geranyl pyrophosphate, farnesyl pyrophosphate, and/or farnesene. The bacterium may comprise one or more exogenous enzymes, such as enzymes in mevalonate, DXS, or terpene biosynthesis pathways.

The invention provides a method for producing a terpene or a precursor thereof by microbial fermentation. Typically, the method involves culturing a recombinant bacterium in the presence of a gaseous substrate whereby the bacterium produces a terpene or a precursor thereof, such as mevalonic acid, isopentenyl pyrophosphate, dimethylallyl pyrophosphate, isoprene, geranyl pyrophosphate, farnesyl pyrophosphate, and/or farnesene. The bacterium may comprise one or more exogenous enzymes, such as enzymes in mevalonate, DXS, or terpene biosynthesis pathways.

The present disclosure relates to a novel acetohydroxy acid synthase, a microorganism comprising the same, or a method for producing an L-branched-chain amino acid using the same.

A system and method for controlling metabolic enzymes or pathways in cells to produce a chemical above the levels of a wild-type strain is disclosed. The system utilizes cells, including yeasts, bacteria, and molds, having at least two genes capable of being controlled bi-directionally with light, where one gene is turned from off to on when exposed to light and another gene is turned from on to off when exposed to light, the two genes reversing when the light is turned off. Cells may utilize any number of sequences that benefit chemical production, including sequences that: encode for constitutive transcription of light-activated transcription factor fusions; encode for a metabolic enzyme; encode for a repressor; induce expression of metabolic enzymes; and an endogenous or exogenous activator expressed by a constitutive promoter, inducible promoter, or gene circuit. These systems may be coupled to biosensors or protein cascade systems, enabling the monitoring or automation of the fermentation process to optimize production of a desired product. These systems may also allow for optimization and periodic operation of a bioreactor using light pulses.

The present invention relates to a recombinant Deinococcus bacterium exhibiting enhanced 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate/1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (MEP/DXP) pathway, and its use for producing terpene or terpenoid compounds.

The present invention provides D-lactate dehydrogenase, an engineered strain containing the D-lactate dehydrogenase and a construction method and use of the engineered strain. The present invention discloses a D-lactate dehydrogenase which has unique properties and is from Thermodesulfatator indicus, and the D-lactate dehydrogenase has good thermophily and heat stability. By using the D-lactate dehydrogenase and said gene engineering reconstruction method, a fermentation product of the reconstructed Bacillus licheniformis can be redirected to optically-pure D-lactic acid with a high yield from naturally produced 2,3-butanediol, and the optical purity of the produced D-lactic acid reaches 99.9%; and raw materials for fermentation are low-cost, and a fermentation state is between an anaerobic fermentation state and a microaerobic fermentation state. By using the inventive method for producing D-lactic acid through fermentation at high temperature, the production cost can be reduced, the production efficiency can be improved and there is a wide industrial application prospect for the inventive method.

Presented herein are biocatalysts and methods for converting C1-containing materials to organic acids such as muconic acid or adipic acid.

Multi-carbon compounds such as ethanol, n-butanol, sec-butanol, isobutanol, tert-butanol, fatty (or aliphatic long chain) alcohols, fatty acid methyl esters, 2,3-butanediol and the like, are important industrial commodity chemicals with a variety of applications. The present invention provides metabolically engineered host microorganisms which metabolize methane (CH.sub.4) as their sole carbon source to produce multi-carbon compounds for use in fuels (e.g., bio-fuel, bio-diesel) and bio-based chemicals. Furthermore, use of the metabolically engineered host microorganisms of the invention (which utilize methane as the sole carbon source) mitigate current industry practices and methods of producing multi-carbon compounds from petroleum or petroleum-derived feedstocks, and ameliorate much of the ongoing depletion of arable food source farmland currently being diverted to grow bio-fuel feedstocks, and as such, improve the environmental footprint of future bio-fuel, bio-diesel and bio-based chemical compositions.

Methods and materials related to producing isobutyric acid are disclosed. Specifically, isolated nucleic acids, polypeptides, host cells, methods and materials for producing isobutyric by direct microbial fermentation from a carbon source are disclosed.

The present disclosure relates to a novel acetohydroxy acid synthase, a microorganism comprising the same, or a method for producing an L-branched-chain amino acid using the same.