The present invention relates to an
alcohol acyltransferase capable of esterifying a
tertiary monoterpene alcohol, preferably within 36 hours, 24 hours, 18 hours, 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, 45 minutes, or 30 minutes, more preferably in a microbial
cell, so that at least 30% by weight of the
tertiary monoterpene alcohol is esterified. The present invention further relates to a
nucleic acid comprising a
nucleic acid sequence encoding the alcohol
acyltransferase of the present invention or a complementary sequence thereof, and a vector or genetic construct comprising the
nucleic acid of the present invention. The present invention also provides a host
cell comprising the vector or genetic construct of the present invention, and a transgenic non-
human organism comprising the nucleic acid of the present invention, the vector or genetic construct of the present invention, or the host
cell of the present invention. The present invention also relates to a method for preparing a
monoterpene ester, which method comprises esterifying a monoterpene alcohol to a monoterpene ester in the presence of the alcohol
acyltransferase of the present invention. Specifically, it provides a method for preparing
linalyl acetate, which comprises esterifying
linalool to
linalyl acetate in the presence of the alcohol acyltransferase of the present invention.The present invention further provides (i)
heterologous reconstitution of
terpene biosynthetic pathways; (ii) for producing industrial products, preferably flavors or fragrances, biofuels, fuel compositions, fuel compounds, e.g., foaming agents for
diesel fuel compositions, pesticides,
insect repellents or
antimicrobial agents; (iii) for producing aliphatic and / or aromatic monoterpene esters from monoterpene alcohols, preferably from
tertiary monoterpene alcohols; (iv) for detoxifying monoterpene alcohols in microorganisms, thereby increasing monoterpene production in said microorganisms; (v) for combining monoterpene alcohols with GPP synthase and / or S- or R-
linalool synthase; (vi) to enhance the beneficial effect of
acetylation in that the hydrophobic acetate partitions more readily into the organic phase compared to the monoterpene alcohol; (vii) to express the alcohol acyltransferase of the invention so that the ratio of monoterpene acetate to monoterpene alcohol is greater than 5:1 or 10:1; or (viii) in a microbial production
system for monoterpene esters. The invention also provides kits comprising the alcohol acyltransferase of the invention, the nucleic acid of the invention, the vector or
gene construct of the invention, the host cell of the invention, or the transgenic non-
human organism of the invention, and optionally at least one monoterpene alcohol, preferably a tertiary monoterpene alcohol.Finally, the present invention relates to a method for the production of fuel and / or biolubricant compounds, the method comprising: a) producing one or more monoterpene esters by any one of the methods of the present invention; b) optionally purifying the one or more monoterpene esters produced in step a); and c) converting some or all of the one or more monoterpene esters of step a) or the purified one or more monoterpene esters of step b) into a suitable product, preferably: tetrahydrolinalool; 2,6-dimethyloctane (DMO); saturated C20
hydrocarbon dimers; saturated C30
hydrocarbon trimers; hydrogenated
methylcyclopentadiene dimers; and hydrogenated C40+ oligomers suitable for producing a biolubricant additive; and d) optionally combining the one or more fuel or biolubricant compounds with additional compounds suitable for fuels and / or biolubricants; wherein the fuel and / or biolubricant composition has, in total, from 0.01% (w / w) to 99.99% (w / w) of the fuel or biolubricant compound produced from one or more monoterpene esters obtainable by one of the methods of the present invention.