Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms for the Production of Higher Alcohols
Yong Jun Choi,
Joungmin Lee,
Yu-Sin Jang,
Sang Yup Lee
Affiliations
Yong Jun Choi
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, BioProcess Engineering Research Center, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Joungmin Lee
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, BioProcess Engineering Research Center, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Yu-Sin Jang
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, BioProcess Engineering Research Center, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Sang Yup Lee
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Plus Program), Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, BioProcess Engineering Research Center, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology, Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
ABSTRACT Due to the increasing concerns about limited fossil resources and environmental problems, there has been much interest in developing biofuels from renewable biomass. Ethanol is currently used as a major biofuel, as it can be easily produced by existing fermentation technology, but it is not the best biofuel due to its low energy density, high vapor pressure, hygroscopy, and incompatibility with current infrastructure. Higher alcohols, including 1-propanol, 1-butanol, isobutanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, and 3-methyl-1-butanol, which possess fuel properties more similar to those of petroleum-based fuel, have attracted particular interest as alternatives to ethanol. Since microorganisms isolated from nature do not allow production of these alcohols at high enough efficiencies, metabolic engineering has been employed to enhance their production. Here, we review recent advances in metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the production of higher alcohols.
