Quinic acid is a type of acid found naturally in plants. It is often used to add a bitter taste to foods and drinks. It is also believed to have some beneficial effects on health, such as reducing inflammation and relieving pain. Full definition
In the 1950s, chemists discovered that certain microorganisms, such as K. pneumoniae, could «catabolise», or break down, quinic acid into other compounds, a process which provided the organisms with their sole source of carbon during growth. (newscientist.com)
Frost and his colleagues anticipate that, by expressing the gene for the dehydrogenase enzyme, they should be able to produce a microbe that can synthesise quinic acid from an appropriate starting material. (newscientist.com)
E. coli is well understood, and can not use quinic acid naturally as a source of carbon, so the microbe should not catalyse reactions that compete with the formation of the target acid. (newscientist.com)