Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1460, USA.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2013 Jun;17(3):472-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.03.034. Epub 2013 May 6.
Commercial fermentation processes have long taken advantage of the synthetic power of living systems to rapidly and efficiently transform simple carbon sources into complex molecules. In this regard, the ability of yeasts to produce ethanol from glucose at exceptionally high yields has served as a key feature in its use as a fuel, but is also limited by the poor molecular properties of ethanol as a fuel such as high water miscibility and low energy density. Advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology allow us to begin constructing new high-flux pathways for production of next generation biofuels that are key to building a sustainable pipeline for liquid transportation fuels.
商业发酵过程长期以来一直利用生命系统的合成能力，快速有效地将简单的碳源转化为复杂的分子。在这方面，酵母将葡萄糖转化为乙醇的能力极高，这是其作为燃料的一个关键特性，但也受到乙醇作为燃料的不良分子特性的限制，如高水溶性和低能量密度。代谢工程和合成生物学的进步使我们能够开始构建生产下一代生物燃料的新高通量途径，这是构建液体运输燃料可持续管道的关键。
