Microbial production of acetoacetate by recombinant Escherichia coli

A synthetic pathway consisting of octAB encoding succinyl-CoA:acetoacetate CoA-transferase and phaA encoding β-ketothiolase from Ralstonia eutropha H16 was constructed in Escherichia coli for extracellular production of acetoacetate. The recombinant E. coli produced 8.2 g/l acetoacetate in shake flasks at 37 °C in 24 h. In a 6-L fermentor, extracellular acetoacetate production was enhanced to 13.1 g/l after 30 h of fed-batch growth. To our knowledge, this is the first study on microbial production of acetoacetate.