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Balancing Cell Growth and Product Synthesis for Efficient Microbial Cell Factories
Linxia Liu1,2,3,4, Dongqin Ding1,2,3,4, Huiying Wang1,2,3,4
1Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|September 18, 2025
Summary
Metabolic engineering advances microbial cell factories for sustainable chemical production from biomass. Strategies reconcile growth and production trade-offs, paving the way for net-zero carbon goals.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology and metabolic engineering for sustainable chemical production.
Background:
- Biorefineries utilize renewable biomass for bio-based chemicals, crucial for climate change mitigation and net-zero commitments.
- Metabolic engineering enables microbial overproduction of target compounds but faces growth-synthesis trade-offs, impacting microbial fitness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent metabolic engineering strategies that address the conflict between microbial growth and high-level product synthesis.
- To explore future directions for optimizing microbial cell factories.
Main Methods:
- Pathway optimization and dynamic regulation of metabolic pathways.
- Orthogonal system design and microbial consortia engineering.
- Fermentation process control and integrative metabolic modeling.
Main Results:
- Advances in metabolic engineering have provided methods to balance cell growth with product synthesis.
- Engineered microbial strains show improved fitness and reduced loss-of-function phenotypes.
Conclusions:
- Harmonizing microbial growth and high-level production is achievable through advanced metabolic engineering.
- Further research is needed to overcome remaining challenges in reprogramming microbial metabolism for industrial applications.
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