Microbial Production of Human Milk Oligosaccharides

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 28; no. 3; p. 1491
• Main Authors: Palur, Dileep Sai Kumar, Pressley, Shannon R, Atsumi, Shota
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.02.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Breast Feeding; Breast milk; Carbohydrates; Carbon; Chemical properties; Chemical synthesis; Commercialization; Composition; E coli; Enzymes; Escherichia coli; Female; Functional foods & nutraceuticals; Genes; Health aspects; human milk oligosaccharides; Humans; Immunomodulation; Industrial microorganisms; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Lactose; Metabolic Engineering; Metabolism; Microbiological research; Microbiological synthesis; Microorganisms; Milk; Milk, Human - metabolism; Oligosaccharides; Oligosaccharides - metabolism; Physiological aspects; Prebiotics; Production processes; Regulatory approval; Review; Sucrose; Sugar; Sugars - metabolism; synthetic biology; United States; synthetic biology; human milk oligosaccharides; metabolic engineering
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules28031491

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are complex nonnutritive sugars present in human milk. These sugars possess prebiotic, immunomodulatory, and antagonistic properties towards pathogens and therefore are important for the health and well-being of newborn babies. Lower prevalence of breastfeeding around the globe, rising popularity of nutraceuticals, and low availability of HMOs have inspired efforts to develop economically feasible and efficient industrial-scale production platforms for HMOs. Recent progress in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools has enabled microbial systems to be a production system of HMOs. In this regard, the model organism has emerged as the preferred production platform. Herein, we summarize the remarkable progress in the microbial production of HMOs and discuss the challenges and future opportunities in unraveling the scope of production of complex HMOs. We focus on the microbial production of five HMOs that have been approved for their commercialization.