Recent Advances in Microbial Production of Aromatic Chemicals and Derivatives

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) Vol. 35; no. 8; pp. 785 - 796
• Main Authors: Noda, Shuhei, Kondo, Akihiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2017; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Amino acids; aromatic chemicals; Aromatic compounds; Biodiesel fuels; Bioinformatics; bioproduction; Biosynthesis; Bottlenecks; Carbon; Chemicals; chorismate derivatives; Chorismic Acid - biosynthesis; Chorismic Acid - genetics; Dehydrogenases; Deregulation; E coli; Engineering; Enzymes; Feedback inhibition; Genes; Genomes; Internal Medicine; Metabolic engineering; Metabolic Engineering - methods; Metabolic pathways; Metabolism; Metabolites; Microbiology; microorganism; Microorganisms; Productivity; Shikimic Acid - metabolism; Yeast; microorganism; bioproduction; aromatic chemicals; chorismate derivatives
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.05.006

Along with the development of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology tools, various microbes are being used to produce aromatic chemicals. In microbes, aromatics are mainly produced via a common important precursor, chorismate, in the shikimate pathway. Natural or non-natural aromatics have been produced by engineering metabolic pathways involving chorismate. In the past decade, novel approaches have appeared to produce various aromatics or to increase their productivity, whereas previously, the targets were mainly aromatic amino acids and the strategy was deregulating feedback inhibition. In this review, we summarize recent studies of microbial production of aromatics based on metabolic engineering approaches. In addition, future perspectives and challenges in this research area are discussed.