Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37249589›Full record

ArticleApplied microbiology and biotechnology2023

Engineering Escherichia coli to assimilate β-alanine as a major carbon source.

Nga Yu Poon, Anthony J Sinskey, Kang Zhou

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Metabolic engineering enablesSynthetic and systems biotechnology · 2026
    Article
  2. Non-proteinogenic β-alanine metabolism inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Nga Yu PoonDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Anthony J SinskeyDepartment of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. asinskey@mit.edu.
Kang ZhouDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. kang.zhou@nus.edu.sg.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0606-7030
National University of Singapore · SGMassachusetts Institute of Technology · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The threat of global plastic waste accumulation has spurred the exploration of plastics derived from biological sources. A well-known example is polyester made of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO). However, there is no known pathway to assimilate 1,3-PDO into the central carbon metabolism, posing a potential challenge to upcycling such plastic wastes. Here, we proposed that the 1,3-PDO assimilation pathway could pass through malonate semialdehyde (MSA) as an intermediate. Since MSA is a toxic aldehyde, β-alanine was chosen as a surrogate substrate in this study to construct the lower part of the proposed pathway. To this end, we successfully engineered E. coli MG1655 to assimilate β-alanine as the major carbon source. β-alanine could be easily converted into MSA using a β-alanine/pyruvate transaminase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PaBapt). However, the subsequent step to generate acetyl-CoA from MSA was unknown. After a series of phenotype screenings, adaptive laboratory evolution and transcriptomic analysis, two CoA-acylating MSA dehydrogenases from Vibrio natriegens (VnMmsD), were found to be able to complete the metabolic pathway. Optical density at 600 nm (OD

Indexed as

Escherichia coliPropylene Glycolbeta-AlanineMetabolic EngineeringOxidoreductasesPlasticsbeta-AlanineOxidoreductasesPlasticsPropylene GlycolEscherichia coliMethyl malonate semialdehyde dehydrogenasesPlasmid fusionPlastic degradationβ-alanine

Identifiers

PMID37249589
OpenAlexW4378746766

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.