Genetic engineering of non-native hosts for 1-butanol production and its challenges: a review.

Said Nawab, Ning Wang, Xiaoyan Ma, Yi-Xin Huo

Microbial cell factories 2020 Mar 27

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Owing to the increase in energy consumption, fossil fuel resources are gradually depleting which has led to the growing environmental concerns; therefore, scientists are being urged to produce sustainable and ecofriendly fuels. Thus, there is a growing interest in the generation of biofuels from renewable energy resources using microbial fermentation. Butanol is a promising biofuel that can substitute for gasoline; unfortunately, natural microorganisms pose challenges for the economical production of 1-butanol at an industrial scale. The availability of genetic and molecular tools to engineer existing native pathways or create synthetic pathways have made non-native hosts a good choice for the production of 1-butanol from renewable resources. Non-native hosts have several distinct advantages, including using of cost-efficient feedstock, solvent tolerant and reduction of contamination risk. Therefore, engineering non-native hosts to produce biofuels is a promising approach towards achieving sustainability. This paper reviews the currently employed strategies and synthetic biology approaches used to produce 1-butanol in non-native hosts over the past few years. In addition, current challenges faced in using non-native hosts and the possible solutions that can help improve 1-butanol production are also discussed. Non-native organisms have the potential to realize commercial production of 1- butanol from renewable resources. Future research should focus on substrate utilization, cofactor imbalance, and promoter selection to boost 1-butanol production in non-native hosts. Moreover, the application of robust genetic engineering approaches is required for metabolic engineering of microorganisms to make them industrially feasible for 1-butanol production.

Citation

Said Nawab, Ning Wang, Xiaoyan Ma, Yi-Xin Huo. Genetic engineering of non-native hosts for 1-butanol production and its challenges: a review. Microbial cell factories. 2020 Mar 27;19(1):79