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Biosynthesis, biotechnological production, and applications of glucosylglycerols

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Abstract

Glucosylglycerols (GGs) are known as compatible solutes accumulated by some bacteria including cyanobacteria as well as higher plants for their adaptations to salt or desiccation stresses. Since being identified in Japanese sake, their physiological effects and potential applications on human health cares have been explored in the following 15 years. Several different synthesis methods have been successively developed for the production of GGs. However, the efficiency of GG synthesis, especially biological synthesis, is still low. With the recent advances in genome sequencing and synthetic biology tools, systematical screening of enzyme candidates and metabolic engineering approaches is necessary for improving GG synthesis efficiency. In this review, we will summarize GG structure information, protective effects on human skin and digestive system as well as industrial enzymes, together with their synthesis by chemical, enzymatic, and biological in vivo approaches in detail, and provide some prospects on improving GG production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 189 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266101, China

    Xiaoming Tan, Quan Luo & Xuefeng Lu

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  1. Xiaoming Tan
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  2. Quan Luo
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  3. Xuefeng Lu
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Correspondence to Xuefeng Lu.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Taishan Scholarship (X. Lu), the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction Program (GASI-03-01-02-05 to X. Tan), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012169 to X. Tan), and the National Science Foundation of China (31301018 to X. Tan).

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Tan, X., Luo, Q. & Lu, X. Biosynthesis, biotechnological production, and applications of glucosylglycerols. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 6131–6139 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7608-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7608-3

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