Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Engineering Drive, Room 3629, Madison, WI 53706, United States; U.S. Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1550 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, United States.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2013 Dec;24(6):1044-53. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.02.028. Epub 2013 Mar 28.
Fatty acid metabolism is an attractive route to produce liquid transportation fuels and commodity oleochemicals from renewable feedstocks. Recently, genes and enzymes, which comprise metabolic pathways for producing fatty acid-derived compounds (e.g. esters, alkanes, olefins, ketones, alcohols, polyesters) have been elucidated and used in engineered microbial hosts. The resulting strains often generate products at low percentages of maximum theoretical yields, leaving significant room for metabolic engineering. Economically viable processes will require strains to approach theoretical yields, particularly for replacement of petroleum-derived fuels. This review will describe recent progress toward this goal, highlighting the scientific discoveries of each pathway, ongoing biochemical studies to understand each enzyme, and metabolic engineering strategies that are being used to improve strain performance.
脂肪酸代谢是一种有吸引力的途径，可以利用可再生原料生产液体运输燃料和大宗化学品。最近，构成脂肪酸衍生化合物（例如酯、烷烃、烯烃、酮、醇、聚酯）生产代谢途径的基因和酶已经被阐明，并被用于工程化微生物宿主中。由此产生的菌株通常以低于最大理论产率的百分比生成产物，这为代谢工程留下了很大的空间。经济可行的工艺将需要菌株接近理论产率，特别是对于替代石油衍生燃料。本综述将描述朝着这一目标取得的最新进展，重点介绍每个途径的科学发现、正在进行的生化研究以了解每种酶，以及正在用于提高菌株性能的代谢工程策略。
