Figure 2

Biosynthesis of methylacetoin and 2-methyl-2,3-butanediol.

(a) Plasmids carrying the pathway genes. (b) Methylacetoin and 2-methyl-2,3-butanediol production via pathway 1 or 2 hosted by BL21(DE3) or YYC202(DE3)ΔldhA. The BL21(DE3) strains and YYC202(DE3)ΔldhA strains were cultured in an M9 medium and enhanced M9 medium, respectively, under shake-flask and air-limited conditions (see Method for details). After gene expression was induced, 200 mM acetone was added. The product concentrations were determined after cultivating for 24 h by GC or GC-MS. The error bars represent the standard error associated with triplicate experiments.