Glutaric acid production by systems metabolic engineering of an l -lysine–overproducing Corynebacterium glutamicum

Significance Glutaric acid is an important dicarboxylic acid used in the synthesis of commercial polymers. Here we report metabolic engineering of an l -lysine–overproducing Corynebacterium glutamicum strain for the high-level production of glutaric acid. The glutaric acid biosynthesis pathway was established in C. glutamicum by optimally expressing the genes encoding key enzymes from Pseudomonas putida and C. glutamicum for the efficient conversion of l- lysine to glutaric acid. Further metabolic engineering and overexpression of a newly discovered glutaric acid exporter gene resulted in the production of 105.3 g/L of glutaric acid without byproducts from glucose. The metabolic engineering strategies described here will be useful for developing microbial strains for the bio-based production of other chemicals in addition to glutaric acid.