Genetic construction of novel microbial strains for biomanufacturing purposes using methanol as the feedstock

厌氧消化（AD）是一种在没有氧气的情况下，使用一群细菌将有机物质分解为甲烷的过程。AD产生的气体被称为沼气，AD的原料通常来自城市或农业废物。AD是一个完善且稳健的过程。然而，AD的主要缺点之一是它只生产单一产品-沼气-沼气通常用作低成本动力和电力的替代来源。为了支持新的AD工厂建设的经济理由，以及现有设施的经济成功，非常希望能够从AD生产更多样化和更高价值的产品。CH四沼气（CHFB）是一家总部设在渥太华的公司，在北温哥华和伦斯勒，纽约外地办事处。CHFB是AD领域的行业领导者， 位于加拿大和美国的十几个沼气厂，由CHFB设计和实施，今天成功运营。该公司专注于与推进沼气技术相关的几个领域，包括创新设计，性能良好的系统，先进的产品和研究，特别是利用农业和城市废物生产沼气。作为加拿大沼气行业的领先公司，CHFB目前正努力通过识别可从沼气中提取的新型生物产品来扩大其产品范围。在这项提案中，UWaterloo团队将与CHFB合作，探索用于异源生产丁酮的新型微生物菌株的遗传构建，丁酮是一种用于油漆，涂料，树脂和印刷的有价值的化学品。探索的成功可能会导致下一阶段的 在开发大规模沼气转化过程中的主要合作。

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a process that uses a consortium of bacteria to break down organic matter into methane, in the absence of oxygen. The gas produced by AD is known as biogas and the feedstock for AD typically comes from municipal or agricultural waste. AD is a well-established and robust process. However, one of the major shortcomings of AD is that it only makes a single product - biogas - which is typically used as alternate source of low-cost power and electricity. To bolster the economic case for new AD plant construction, and the economic success of existing installations, it would be highly desirable to be able to produce more varied and higher-value products from AD. CH Four Biogas (CHFB) is an Ottawa-based company, with field offices in North Vancouver and Rensselaer, New York. CHFB is an industry leader in the field of AD, with more than one dozen biogas plants located in Canada and the US, which were designed and implemented by CHFB, operating successfully today. The company specializes in several areas relevant to the furtherance of biogas technology including innovative design, well-performing systems, progressive products, and research, particularly using agricultural and municipal wastes for the production of biogas. As a Canadian leading company in the biogas industry, CHFB is now striving to broaden its product range by identifying novel bioproducts that can be derived from biogas. In this proposal, the UWaterloo group will team with CHFB to explore genetic construction of novel microbial strains for heterologous production of butanone, a valuable chemical used in paint, coating, resin, and printing. Success of the exploration can lead to the next phase of major collaboration in developing large-scale biogas conversion processes.