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Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of isobutanol: a review

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Abstract

With the ongoing depletion of fossil fuel resources and emerging environmental issues, increasing research effort is being dedicated to producing biofuels from renewable substrates. With its advantages over ethanol in terms of energy density, octane number, and hygroscopicity, isobutanol is considered a potential alternative to traditional gasoline. However, as wild-type microorganisms cannot achieve the production of isobutanol with high titers and yields, rational genetic engineering has been employed to enhance its production. Herein, we review the latest developments in the metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of isobutanol, including those related to the utilization of diverse carbon sources, balancing the redox state, improving isobutanol tolerance, and application of synthetic biology circuits and tools.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600066), Rizhao science and technology innovation project (2020CXZX1206) and Science and Technology Program of University of Jinan (XKY2028).

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All the authors were involved in the concept and design of this review. PG, LL and QM wrote the article; PG and QL read and corrected the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pengfei Gu or Qiang Li.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Gu, P., Liu, L., Ma, Q. et al. Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of isobutanol: a review. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 37, 168 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-021-03140-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-021-03140-0

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