A "serendipitous pathway" was found in an overexpression library that could suppress the auxotrophy caused by the deletion of pdxB (encoding erythronate 4 phosphate dehydrogenase) in "E. coli". The serendipitous pathway was very inefficient, but was possible due to the promiscuous activity of various enzymes. It started with 3-phosphohydroxypyruvate (the product of the "serA"-encoded enzyme in serine biosynthesis) and did not require erythronate-4-phosphate. 3PHP was dephosphorylated, resulting in an unstable intermediate that decarboxylates spontaneously (hence the presence of the phosphate in the serine biosynthetic pathway) to glycaldehyde. Glycaldehyde was condensed with glycine and the phosphorylated product was 4-phosphohydroxythreonine (4PHT), the canonical substate for 4-PHT dehydrogenase ("pdxA").