[Advances in microbial synthesis of chemicals using with acetate as a substrate]

The efficient production of target chemicals by microbial cell factories, characterized by renewable raw materials, clean and efficient production processes, and mild reaction conditions, has been established as a significant direction for sustainable industrial development. Currently, microbial cell factories primarily use glucose and glycerol as carbon sources, which compete with humans for grain and compete with grain for land, restricting the rapid development of the microbial manufacturing industry. As a non-grain carbon source, acetate can avoid the aforementioned issues and is widely sourced from industrial waste and biomass conversion, and thus it has become an ideal alternative carbon source for the microbial synthesis of chemicals. This paper systematically evaluates the potential of acetate as a microbial carbon source for the synthesis of chemicals from four dimensions: microorganisms capable of utilizing acetate, metabolic engineering strategies to enhance the utilization of acetate, methods to improve tolerance to high concentrations of acetate, and the chemicals that can be synthesized from acetate. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the main challenges faced by microbial cell factories in utilizing acetate and envisions the future development directions, providing theoretical guidance for the in-depth research and industrial application of acetate-based biomanufacturing technologies.