Microbial Production of Single Cell Proteins from Single Carbon Substrates: A Review

Abstract

With the continuous growth of the world population, the demand for high-protein foods such as meat and dairy products is increasing greatly, which brings great challenges to the supply of food proteins in China. Some microbes can utilize carbon dioxide, methane, methanol and other single carbon compounds to produce high-quality single cell proteins (SCP), which can be applied in the food industry. Establishing a green microbial system for the production of SCP is important to ensure the security of the food protein supply in China. In addition, microbial transformation of single carbon compounds to SCP can reduce carbon emissions, alleviate the greenhouse effect, and achieve sustainable development. In this article, we review the application of microbial SCP in the food industry and recent advances in the microbial production of SCP from single carbon compounds, and we describe the metabolic network mechanisms of microorganisms utilizing natural single carbon compounds and speculate on the prospects for the modification of these microorganisms. Finally, we discuss the future prospects for the use of synthetic biology to modify microorganisms to produce SCP from single carbon substrates. With this review, we hope to provide ideas for the commercial production of microbial SCP.

Keywords

• single cell proteins; single carbon compounds; microbial engineering