Engineered co2-fixing chemotrophic microorganisms producing carbon-based products and methods of using the same

Abstract

Disclosed herein are microorganisms containing exogenous or heterologous nucleic acid sequences, wherein the microorganisms are capable of growing on gaseous carbon dioxide, gaseous hydrogen, syngas, or combinations thereof. In some embodiments the microorganisms are chemotrophic bacteria that produce or secrete at least 10% of lipid by weight. Also disclosed are methods of fixing gaseous carbon into organic carbon molecules useful for industrial processes. Also disclosed are methods of manufacturing chemicals or producing precursors to chemicals useful in jet fuel, diesel fuel, and biodiesel fuel. Exemplary chemicals or precursors to chemicals useful in fuel production are alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, fatty acid alcohols, fatty acid aldehydes, desaturated hydrocarbons, unsaturated fatty acids, hydroxyl acids, or diacids with carbon chains between six and thirty carbon atoms long. Also disclosed are microorganisms and methods using disclosed microorganisms for the production of butanediol and its chemical precursors in low-oxygen or anaerobic fermentation. Also disclosed are microorganisms and methods using disclosed microorganisms for generating hydroxylated fatty acids in microbes through the transfer of enzymes that are known to hydroxylate fatty acids in plants or microbes. Also disclosed are microorganisms and methods using disclosed microorganisms for the production of shorter-chain fatty acids in microbes through the introduction of exogenous fatty acyl-CoA binding proteins.