Itaconic acid， a C5-dicarboxylic acid， is a potential biobased building block for the polymer industry. It is obtained from the citric acid cycle by decarboxylation of cis-aconitic acid. This reaction is catalyzed by CadA in the native itaconic acid producer Aspergillus terreus. Recently， another enzyme encoded by the mammalian immunoresponsive gene 1 (irg1)， was found to decarboxylate cis-aconitate to itaconate in vitro. We show that heterologous expression of irg1 enabled itaconate production in Escherichia coli with production titres up to 560 mg/L.
Itaconic acid， a C5-dicarboxylic acid， is a potential biobased building block for the polymer industry. It is obtained from the citric acid cycle by decarboxylation of cis-aconitic acid. This reaction is catalyzed by CadA in the native itaconic acid producer Aspergillus terreus. Recently， another enzyme encoded by the mammalian immunoresponsive gene 1 (irg1)， was found to decarboxylate cis-aconitate to itaconate in vitro. We show that heterologous expression of irg1 enabled itaconate production in Escherichia coli with production titres up to 560 mg/L.
