Isobutyl-CoA

Phytanic acid is converted to pristanic acid by oxidation of the a-carbon and a decarboxylation. Pristanic acid is further degraded to generate a mixture of acetyl-CoA, propionyl-CoA, and isobutyl-CoA by the /3-oxidation pathway. 

The carbon skeleton rearrangements [Table 1, entry 7 to 10 equation (b), X = COSCoA, CHN H3CO2 , C(=CH2)C02 , CH2COSC0A] are reversible. The isobutyl-CoA mutase reaction was discovered recently little is yet known about this reaction . 

The direct conversion of cellulose to biofuels would be more favorable under high temperatures to favor cellulose hydrolysis and reduce the chance of contamination. Lin et al. [96] were successful in the production of isobutanol using the cellulytic thermophile C. thermocellum. They also confirmed that an alternative pathway to kivd existed in this organism a ferrodoxin-dependent oxidoreductase that decarboxylased a-ketoisovalerate to produce isobutyl-CoA and then reduced to isobutanol. Their best result showed a titer of 5.4gU of isobutanol from cellulose at 50 °C within 75 h and at 41% of the theoretical yield [96]. 

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