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Microbial production of lactate-containing polyesters.
Jung Eun Yang1, So Young Choi, Jae Ho Shin
1Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Program), Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Korea; Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Korea.
Microbial Biotechnology
|May 31, 2013
Summary
Metabolic engineering advances microbial production of polyesters, including novel lactate-containing polymers. This review details strategies for enhancing biobased polyester synthesis and discusses future challenges for efficient bioproduction.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology and Metabolic Engineering
- Polymer Science
- Microbial Fermentation
Background:
- Growing environmental concerns and dwindling fossil fuels drive interest in biobased chemical and material production via biorefineries.
- Metabolic engineering has significantly improved the efficiency of producing target bioproducts, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (microbial polyesters).
- Recent breakthroughs include the one-step fermentation of engineered bacteria to produce non-natural polyesters incorporating lactate monomers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review strategies for metabolically engineering microorganisms for in vivo biosynthesis of lactate-containing polyesters.
- To discuss the optimization of whole-cell metabolism for efficient lactate-containing polyester production.
- To identify key challenges hindering further enhancement of lactate-containing polyester yields.
Main Methods:
- Metabolic engineering of microbial strains.
- Systems metabolic engineering integrating systems biology, synthetic biology, and protein/enzyme engineering.
- Directed evolution and structural design for enzyme optimization.
- Evolutionary engineering for enhanced microbial performance.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated success in engineering microorganisms for polyhydroxyalkanoates production.
- Enabled the production of non-natural polyesters containing lactate monomers through one-step fermentation.
- Integrated multiple engineering approaches to boost the efficiency of bioproduct synthesis.
Conclusions:
- Systems metabolic engineering provides a powerful framework for producing both natural and non-natural polyesters.
- Significant progress has been made in the biosynthesis of lactate-containing polyesters.
- Further research is needed to overcome existing limitations and maximize the production efficiency of these biobased materials.
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