Abstract
Microbial fermentation processes commonly utilize sugars as the carbon source. With a growing world population and the inherent demand for food and feed, the field is urged to move towards alternative carbon sources. Methanol and ethylene glycol present potent so-called next-generation feedstocks, which do not directly compete with food and feed production. Exploiting the advantages of the often-neglected ethylene glycol over methanol, we were able to design and implement a synthetic pathway to produce dihydroxy butyric acid and threonine in Escherichia coli .