The present invention relates to a cell which is genetically modified in relation to its wild type and which exhibits at least one of the properties a) or b): a) an increased activity by comparison with its wild type of an enzyme E.sub.1 which catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate into oxaloacetate, or of an enzyme E.sub.1b which catalyzes the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate into oxaloacetate, b) an increased activity by comparison with its wild type of an enzyme E.sub.2 which catalyzes the conversion of aspartate into beta-alanine,where, besides properties a) or b), the cell is characterized by at least one of the properties c) or d) c) the genetically modified cell is able to export beta-alanine out of the cell, d) the genetically modified cell is able to convert beta-alanine into 3-hydroxypropionic acid. The invention also relates to methods for producing a genetically modified cell, to the genetically modified cells obtainable by this method, to methods for producing 3-hydroxypropionic acid, to a method for producing acrylic acid, to a method for producing polyacrylates, to a method for producing acrylic esters, and to the use of cells for producing 3-hydroxypropionic acid.