Isobutyric acid is a high-volume industrial chemical produced from non-sustainable petroleum feedstocks and toxic materials. It can, e.g., be converted into methacrylic acid and the methyl ester of this is produced in a quantity of 2.2 million tonnes per year for the synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate).

Kechun Zhang, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, and colleagues developed a synthetic metabolic pathway in Escherichia coli to enable the biosynthesis of isobutyric acid from glucose, a renewable carbon source.

The biosynthetic approach is the earliest attempt to produce isobutyric acid in a renewable fashion and an attractive option from both an economical and environmental point of view.

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• A Synthetic Metabolic Pathway for Production of the Platform Chemical Isobutyric Acid,
  Kechun Zhang, Adam P. Woodruff, Mingyong Xiong, Jun Zhou, Yogesh K. Dhande,
  ChemSusChem 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201100045