Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Micro-scale Engineering for Cell Biology
Published on: October 1, 2007
Current advance in biological production of malic acid using wild type and metabolic engineered strains
Zhongxue Dai1, Huiyuan Zhou1, Shangjie Zhang1
1State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, PR China.
Abstract:
Malic acid (2-hydroxybutanedioic acid) is a four-carbon dicarboxylic acid, which has attracted great interest due to its wide usage as a precursor of many industrially important chemicals in the food, chemicals, and pharmaceutical industries. Several mature routes for malic acid production have been developed, such as chemical synthesis, enzymatic conversion and biological fermentation. With depletion of fossil fuels and concerns regarding environmental issues, biological production of malic acid has attracted more attention, which mainly consists of three pathways, namely non-oxidative pathway, oxidative pathway and glyoxylate cycle. In recent decades, metabolic engineering of model strains, and process optimization for malic acid production have been rapidly developed. Hence, this review comprehensively introduces an overview of malic acid producers and highlight some of the successful metabolic engineering approaches.
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Fatty Acid Metabolism
Fatty acids are catabolized in a process called beta-oxidation, which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria and converts their fatty acid chains into two-carbon units of acetyl groups. The acetyl...
What is Metabolism?
Drug Products: Biologics, Biosimilars and Interchangeables
Products of the Citric Acid Cycle
What is Conservation Biology?
Types of Hormones

