Metabolic engineering for amino-, oligo-, and polysugar production in microbes

Amino-, oligo-, and polysugars are important for both medicinal and industrial applications. Microbial processes used in production of such sugars are not only carbon-intensive and energy-demanding processes but also have other distinct disadvantages such as low productivity, low yields, and by-product contamination. Therefore, metabolic engineering has emerged as an effective tool for developing engineered strains to deliver production strategies for many valuable sugars, which were previously difficult to manufacture by other means, in necessary amounts to support their applications. In this review, the recent strategies used for metabolic engineering are summarized and future prospects of this technique are discussed. We hope that this review will contribute to the development of functional and high-value sugar production by metabolic engineering strategies.