Genetically engineered microorganisms comprising 4-hydroxybenzoyl-coa thioesterases and methods of using the same for producing free fatty acids and fatty acid derivatives
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorsRobert Christopher Brown, Rekha Seshadri, Carlos Chavez-Torres, Weidong Xu, Toby Richardson
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Abstract
The described invention provides genetically engineered microorganisms, including photosynthetic microorganisms, expressing 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA thioesterases and methods of using the genetically engineered microorganisms for producing free fatty acids and/or fatty acid derivatives.
Claims19
A microorganism comprising a recombinant nucleic acid molecule encoding a 4-hydroxybenzoyl-coenzyme A (CoA) thioesterase, wherein the 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA thioesterase hydrolyzes acyl-acyl carrier protein (acyl-ACP), and wherein expression of the 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA thioesterase in the microorganism results in production of at least one free fatty acid and/or fatty acid derivative, and further wherein at least 30 wt % of the free fatty acids produced by the microorganism are free fatty acids having an acyl chain length of 12 carbons, 14 carbons, 16 carbons, or any mixture thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.