Microbial production of advanced biofuels

Concerns over climate change have necessitated a rethinking of our transportation infrastructure. One possible alternative to carbon-polluting fossil fuels is biofuels produced by engineered microorganisms that use a renewable carbon source. Two biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, have made inroads in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature reviews. Microbiology 2021-11, Vol.19 (11), p.701-715
Main Authors: Keasling, Jay, Garcia Martin, Hector, Lee, Taek Soon, Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila, Singer, Steven W., Sundstrom, Eric
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/326/2522
631/61/252/318
applied microbiology
Bacteria - metabolism
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Biodiesel fuels
Biofuels
Biofuels - economics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carbon
Carbon sources
Climate change
Emissions
Ethanol
Fossil fuels
Genetic Engineering
Genomics
Infectious Diseases
Infrastructure
Learning algorithms
Life Sciences
Machine Learning
Medical Microbiology
Metabolic engineering
Metabolic pathways
Metabolism
Metabolites
Microbiology
Microorganisms
Parasitology
Petroleum
Review Article
Substrates
Toxicity
Transportation
Virology
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Summary:Concerns over climate change have necessitated a rethinking of our transportation infrastructure. One possible alternative to carbon-polluting fossil fuels is biofuels produced by engineered microorganisms that use a renewable carbon source. Two biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, have made inroads in displacing petroleum-based fuels, but their uptake has been limited by the amounts that can be used in conventional engines and by their cost. Advanced biofuels that mimic petroleum-based fuels are not limited by the amounts that can be used in existing transportation infrastructure but have had limited uptake due to costs. In this Review, we discuss engineering metabolic pathways to produce advanced biofuels, challenges with substrate and product toxicity with regard to host microorganisms and methods to engineer tolerance, and the use of functional genomics and machine learning approaches to produce advanced biofuels and prospects for reducing their costs. Biofuels produced by conversion of biomass by engineered microorganisms have the potential to replace fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. In this Review, Keasling and colleagues discuss engineering of metabolic pathways to produce advanced biofuels and approaches to reduce metabolite toxicity and cost and increase titre, rate and yield.
ISSN:1740-1526
1740-1534
DOI:10.1038/s41579-021-00577-w