Enzymatic reactions and pathway engineering for the production of renewable hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbons such as alkanes and alkenes are extensively used as organic compounds for combustion reactions and as building block components for the synthesis of numerous materials. Various synthetic enzymatic cascades and engineered metabolic pathways can be used to produce alkanes and alkenes from bio-based materials. An understanding of the native reactions and pathways used by various organisms to synthesize these compounds together with novel approaches in biocatalysis and synthetic biology have been instrumental in the development of methods to produce alkanes and alkenes with reasonable yield. This article discusses the present state of knowledge regarding hydrocarbon biosynthetic pathways and discusses current mechanistic understanding of relevant enzymatic reactions in cyanobacteria, aerobic bacteria, insects, algae, and plants. Recent advancements in metabolic engineering and process scale up for production of hydrocarbons from fatty acids are also discussed. This technology is important for sustainability, as it provides a clean and eco-friendly method for the future production of fuels and industrial materials. Further development towards whole cell biocatalysts that are able to provide good yield with a low production cost may allow countries without big oil reserves to be capable of producing precursors for the materials industries in the future.

Saccharomonospora colocasiae sp. nov., an actinomycete isolated from the rhizosphere of Colocasia esculenta.

A non-Streptomyces actinomycete, designated as strain S265T, was isolated from rhizosphere collected under an elephant ear plant (Colocasia esculenta) in Bangkok, Thailand. The taxonomic position of this strain was determined by a polyphasic approach. Strain S265T formed single globose spores on long, branching, aerial hyphae. It produced abundant aerial mycelium with green colour. The cell wall contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, and diagnostic whole-cell sugars were arabinose and galactose. Phosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol were detected predominantly as polar lipids, whereas mycolic acids were not found. The major menaquinone was MK-9(H4), and principal cellular fatty acids were C15 : 1 B, iso-C16 : 1 H, anteiso-C15 : 0 and C15 : 0 2-OH. The DNA G+C content was 69 mol%. According to phylogenetic analysis, strain S265T was clustered with Saccharomonospora glauca K62T (98.1 %) and Saccharomonosporaviridis DSM 43017T (97.1 %) despite its 16S rRNA gene sequence showing the highest similarity value to that of Saccharomonosporaazurea NA-128T (98.6 %). DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain S265T and the closely related strains were in the range of 7-50 %, thus strengthening the evidence derived from the polyphasic study that strain S265T represents a novel species within the genus Saccharomonospora, for which the name Saccharomonosporacolocasiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S265T (=TBRC 7235T=NBRC 112945T).

1-Methoxypyrrole-2-carboxamide-A new pyrrole compound isolated from Streptomyces griseocarneus SWW368.

A new pyrrole compound, 1-methoxypyrrole-2-carboxamide, was obtained from a culture broth of Streptomyces griseocarneus SWW368, which was isolated from the rhizospheric soil under a Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). The chemical structure was elucidated by 1D NMR, 2D NMR, and MS, as a pyrrole ring with a N-methoxy group and a primary amide group. It exhibited antibacterial properties against Kocuria rhizophila, Staphylococcus aureus and Xanthomonas campestris pv. oryzae; however, cytotoxicity of the compound at 714 µM against several mammalian tumor cell lines, i.e. A549, PANC1, HT29, HT1299 and HeLa S3, were not detected.