Engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum for Production of Organic Acids and Alcohols
Bernhard J. Eikmanns and Michael Bott
from: Corynebacterium glutamicum: From Systems Biology to Biotechnological Applications (Edited by: Andreas Burkovski). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2015) Pages: 111-138.
Abstract
Due its success in the large-scale production of L-glutamate and L-lysine and the tremendous increase in knowledge on its metabolism and regulatory networks as well as the establishment of reliable tools for genetic engineering, Corynebacterium glutamicum has become a favorite model organism in white biotechnology. Within the past decade, its potential for the production of other amino acids, but also of a variety of other metabolites of commercial interest has been explored extensively. A major driving force of these studies is the aim to establish a bio-based economy based on renewable carbon sources, which enables to reduce our dependency on fossil carbon sources and to establish sustainable production processes. Important targets in this direction are organic acids, which are employed e.g. as precursors for bulk chemicals and bio-based polymers, and alcohols, which serve e.g. as biofuels. In this review, we will summarize the current knowledge on C. glutamicum strains developed for the production of the organic acids succinate, L- and D-lactate, pyruvate, the 2-keto acids ketoisovalerate, ketoisocaproate and ketoglutarate and of the alcohols ethanol and isobutanol. From the data presented it becomes obvious that C. glutamicum has an enormous potential for the biotechnological synthesis of many of these compounds, which is comparable and often even better than that described for alternative production hosts read more ...
