Producing 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid and ketone using polyketide synthases

A hybrid polyketide synthase (PKS) comprising modules, domains, and/or portions thereof from two or more PKSs capable of synthesizing a 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid or ketone;

• wherein the PKS comprises a loading acyltransferase (ATL) domain and a loading ACP (ACPL) domain, both of LipPks1 of a lipomycin synthase of Streptomyces aureofaciens Tü117, a ketosynthase (KS) domain, an acyltransferase (AT) domain, a ketoreductase (KR) domain, an ACP domain of LipPks1 of a lipomycin synthase of Streptomyces aureofaciens Tü117, and a thioesterase (TE) domain appended to the C-terminus of the ACP domain of LipPks1;
• wherein the hybrid PKS has a broad substrate specificity;
• the 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid has the following chemical structure:
• wherein R1 is —H, R2 is —H, —CH3, —CH2CH3, —CH2CH2CH3, —CH(CH3)2, —CH(CH3)CH2CH3, —CH2CH(CH3)2, —C6H11, or —C6H5, and R3 is —H, —CH3, —CH2CH3, —CH2CH2Cl, —CH2CH═CH2, or —CH2CH2COCH3;
• and, the ketone has the following chemical structure:
• wherein R is —CH3, —CH2CH3, —CH2CH2CH3, —CH(CH3)2, —CH(CH3)CH2CH3, —CH2CH(CH3)2, —C6H11, or —C6H5, and R′ is —CH3, —CH2CH3, —CH2CH2Cl, —CH2CH=CH2, or —CH2CH2COCH3.