Microbial production of L-malate from renewable non-food feedstocks

L-malate is an intermediate of the tricarboxylic acid cycle which is naturally occurred in various microorganisms,and it has been widely applied in polymer,beverage and food,textile,agricultural and pharmaceutical industries.Driven by the pursuit of a sustainable economy,microbial production of L-malate has received much attention in last decades.In this review,we focus on the utilization of wastes and/or byproducts as feedstocks for the microbial production of L-malate.Firstly,we present the recent developments on the natural or engineered metabolic pathways that dedicate to the biosynthesis of L-malate,and also provide a comprehensive discussions on developing high-efficient producers.Then,the recent achievements in microbial production of L-malate from various carbon sources were concluded and discussed.Furthermore,some abundant non-food feedstocks which have been used for microbial production of other chemicals were reviewed,as they may be potential candidate feedstock for L-malate production in future.Finally,we outlined the major challenges and proposed further improvements for the production of L-malate.

One-pot synthesis of toluene from methane and methanol catalyzed by GaN nanowire

The generation of aromatic benzene,toluene,xylene(BTX)compounds from non-petroleum feedstocks is of particular interest for chemists in the eyes of sustainability.Herein,a novel synthesis of toluene catalyzed by GaN semiconductor nanowire arrays is reported.Using methane and methanol as starting materials,the GaN nanowire arrays can synergistically facilitate the facile generation of toluene under either photo-irradiation or thermal-conditions.The detailed computational studies unveiled different mechanisms involved for the photo-and thermal-toluene synthesis.