Year: 2017
Type: editorial
Abstract: Biocatalysts, either microbial cells or enzymes, render biotechnology breakthroughs in fundamentals and applications.Although rational designs with advanced tools and methodologies such as metabolic engineering and synthetic biology are becoming more powerful, conventional strategies including directed/adaptive evolution and process optimization are still indispensable.This special issue contains review and research articles mainly selected from lectures presented at the International Conference on Metabolic Science (ICMS 2016) held on October 20-23, 2016, in Shanghai, China, which was reported in a forum article titled "Metabolic science: Driving bioindustry and beyond".[1] Low overall rates and product titers have been a major challenge for biomanufacture since its emergence, particularly with the production of bulk commodities from renewable resources for sustainable socioeconomic development and ultimately wellbeing of human being.While low rates compromise bioreactors' productivities, and consequently increase capital investment in production facilities, low product titers make downstream product recovery energy-intensive and discharge more waste.The rationales behind these problems are reviewed and strategies for solutions are proposed by Zhou et al. in their review.[2] On the other hand, when yields for biological production by microbes approach theoretical maximum, further improvements present a new challenge, and engineering microbial metabolite dynamics and heterogeneity are thus important, which is critically reviewed by Zhang and colleagues.[3] Another host system of interest is microalgae, acknowledged as the 3rd generation feedstock to produce biofuels and bio-based chemicals, but unfortunately high cost with their production is a bottleneck for process development.Screening microalgal strains and their genetic modifications are prerequisites for more efficient biosynthesis and accumulation of carbohydrates and lipids for the biorefinery, which are reviewed by Chang et al. [4] Updated progress in strain development and process optimization is highlighted in this issue.To further increase muconic acid production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered with the heterologous pathway, an adaptive evolution strategy using a biosensor module responsive to the endogenous aromatic amino acid as a surrogate for dynamic pathway flux monitoring was developed at Prof. Hal Alper's laboratory.[5] Isolated strains with improved biosynthesis were identified for further metabolic engineering, and a similar strategy was also adopted in the production of D-lactic acid by S. cerevisiae at Prof. Ji-Sook Hahn's laboratory.[6] Cellulosomes are multi-enzymes self-assembled for hydrolyzing cellulose more efficiently through their synergy, which may overcome intrinsic drawbacks of cellulases, but the understanding of fundamentals underlying this workhorse is
Source: Biotechnology Journal
Authors: Fengwu Bai, Hal Alper
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2753185077