Sustainable chemical production is a major challenge in the chemical industry. Esters are examples of bulk chemicals that have room for improvement in sustainable production. Microbial production is one avenue to meet this need, where the titer, rate, and yield must be optimized to be competitive with traditional chemical synthesis. To produce acetate esters in Escherichia coli, the Alcohol-O-Acetyl Transferase (Atf1) enzyme was introduced into the organism from the native ester producer Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In prior studies, knocking out genes associated with the overflow metabolites lactate (ldhA) and acetate (pta-ackA and poxB), which divert carbon away from acetyl-CoA generation and thus ester production, has been shown to facilitate an increase in the production of acetate esters in E. coli. Another diversion of acetyl-CoA is via citrate synthase (expressed by gltA gene). This work aims to explore the effect of citrate synthase variants on the production of acetate esters.