Process for the biological production of 1,3-propanediol with high titer

A microorganism transformed with a chimeric gene comprising an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a polypeptide with non-specific catalytic activity for the conversion of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde to 1,3-propanediol operably linked to suitable regulatory sequences, wherein the isolated nucleic acid fragment is selected from the group consisting of:

• (a) an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:57;
• (b) an isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a polypeptide of at least 387 amino acids having at least 95% identity with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:57;
• (c) an isolated nucleic acid fragment that hybridizes with (a) or (b) under hybridization conditions of 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washed with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS;
• and
• (d) an isolated nucleic acid fragment that is complementary to (a), (b) or (c);
• wherein the transformed microorganism is further transformed with genes encoding a glycerol or diol dehydratase enzyme, and is selected from the group consisting of Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Clostridium, Kiebsiella, Aerobacter, Lactobacillus, Aspergillus, Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, Zygosaccharomyces, Pichia, Kluyveromyces, Candida, Hansenula, Debaryomyces, Mucor, Torulopsis, Methylobacter, Salmonella, Bacillus, Streptomyces, Escherichia, and Pseudomonas.