We found that the strain had cobbled together remaining hits and pieces of the
reaction series that normally make branched-chain amino acids and their corresponding fusel oil components to make this new fusel oil--like higher alcohol, normal butyl alcohol.
The reaction product into which the C[O.sub.2] is converted can be collected easily in the form of methanol in the last step of the
reaction series. Methanol is an important starting material for many chemical syntheses and serves as an alternative fuel and as a raw material for the production of energy in methanol fuel cells.
In an alternative
reaction series, the so-called kynurenine pathway, tryptophan is catabolized to form nicotine amides and the vitamin niacin X11 as end products.