Metabolic Engineering of Thermophiles for Biofuel Production
Ya-Jun Liu and Qiu Cui
from: Thermophilic Microorganisms (Edited by: Fu-Li Li). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2015) Pages: 217-236.
Abstract
The severe energy crisis and environmental contamination require alternative means of fuel production, and biofuels produced from lignocellulose, a widely available and inexpensive substrate, are ideal substitutes. The major obstacle for the production of lignocellulosic biofuels is the conversion of the recalcitrant lignocellulose into fermentable sugars, although high-temperature conditions are beneficial to the deconstruction progress. Therefore, thermophiles, especially cellulolytic ones such as Clostridium thermocellum, are considered to be promising candidates for lignocellulosic biofuel production. Metabolic engineering is necessary because wild-type thermophilic candidates possess inherent disadvantages and do not meet the standards for industrialization, and several genetic manipulation tools have been developed to promote the targeted engineering and the application of thermophiles in the industrial production of biofuels. This chapter reviews the recent progress in the development of genetic tools for thermophiles and the metabolic engineering focused on the high production of lignocellulosic biofuels read more ...
