Construction of a synthetic metabolic pathway for biosynthesis of 2,4-dihydroxybutyric acid from ethylene glycol

Abstract

Ethylene glycol is an attractive two-carbon alcohol substrate for bioproduction as it can be derived from CO2 or syngas. Here, the authors design a five-step synthetic metabolic pathway in E. coli to enable the carbon-conserving biosynthesis of the platform chemical 2,4-dihydroxybutyric acid from ethylene glycol.