Saturated mutagenesis of ketoisovalerate decarboxylase V461 enabled specific synthesis of 1-pentanol via the ketoacid elongation cycle

Iterative ketoacid elongation has been an essential tool in engineering artificial metabolism, in particular the synthetic alcohols. However, precise control of product specificity is still greatly challenged by the substrate promiscuity of the ketoacid decarboxylase, which unselectively hijacks ketoacid intermediates from the elongation cycle along with the target ketoacid. In this work, preferential tuning of the Lactococcus lactis...