Scientists Create Conservative Metabolic Pathway to Boost Biofuel Production

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have created a new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucose, which conserves carbon and promises to increase biofuel production by 50 percent.

The new pathway is a modification of the natural metabolic pathway known as glycolysis, a series of chemical reactions that lead to the conversion of glucose sugar into important molecular precursors. Glycolysis converts four of the six carbon atoms found in glucose into two-carbon molecules known acetyl-CoA, a precursor to biofuels like ethanol and butanol, as well as fatty acids, amino acids and pharmaceuticals. However, the two remaining glucose carbons are lost as carbon dioxide.

The net loss of two carbon atoms is a major gap in the efficiency of glycolysis, which is currently used in biorefinies to convert sugars derived from plant biomass into biofuels. To address this, the UCLA research team rerouted the glycolytic pathway so that all six glucose carbon atoms can be converted into three molecules of acetyl-CoA without losing any as carbon dioxide.

The new pathway uses enzymes found in several distinct pathways in nature. The team genetically engineered E. coli bacteria to use the synthetic pathway and demonstrated carbon conservation and production of even more product. The researchers dubbed this new pathway non-oxidative glycolysis, or NOG.