NOVELTY - A recombinant thermophilic or mesophilic microorganism; where the thermophilic or mesophilic microorganism heterologously expresses at least one enzyme; and where the enzymes function in an engineered metabolic pathway to convert glucose to acrylate.    USE - In genetic construct for converting lignocellulosic biomass to acrylate (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The use of thermophilic organisms provides significant economic savings over traditional process methods due to lower acrylate separation costs, reduced requirements for external enzyme addition, and reduced processing times. The cost of acrylate production from cellulosic biomass-containing materials can be reduced by using a novel processing configuration. The novel metabolic pathways is designed by combining metabolic steps that occur in the native T. saccharolyticum or C. thermocellum organisms with metabolic steps that occur in the native C. propionicum organism, and can include additional theoretical steps that aid in the conversion of pyruvate to acrylate. The incorporation of genetically modified thermophilic or mesophilic microorganisms in the processing of the materials allows for fermentation steps to be conducted at higher temperatures, improving process economics. Reaction kinetics are typically proportional to temperature, so higher temperatures are generally associated with increases in the overall rate of production. Additionally, higher temperature facilitates the removal of volatile products from the broth and reduces the need for cooling after pretreatment.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following: 1) a genetic construct (C1) comprising a nucleotide sequence operably linked to a promoter expressible in a thermophilic or mesophilic bacterium, where the nucleotide sequence encodes an enzyme of Clostridium propionicum that converts pyruvate to lactate, converts lactate to acrylate, lactoyl-CoA to acryloyl-CoA, converts acryloyl-CoA to acrylate, converts pyruvate to L- alpha -alanine, converts L- alpha -alanine to L-aspartate, converts L-aspartate to beta - alanine, converts beta -alanyl-CoA to acryloyl-CoA, and/or converts acryloyl-CoA to acrylate; 2) a recombinant thermophilic or mesophilic bacterium comprising the genetic construct (C1); 3) a vector (V1) comprising the genetic construct (C1); 4) a host cell comprising the genetic construct (C1) or the vector (V1); and 5) converting lignocellulosic biomass to acrylate, involving contacting lignocellulosic biomass with a recombinant or genetically modified thermophilic or mesophilic microorganism.