9 What Would Be the Next Feed Amino Acid Based on a Microbial Point of View?

Abstract

Abstract Global Amino acids market is estimated as $15billion in 2020 and 60% of those volume is used for feed additives. Amino acids are converted to protein efficiently and have a benefit of lowering feeding cost and reducing the nitrogen content of the waste output compared to intact protein diet. Most amino acids are produced using microbial fermentation. Traditionally, amino acids used for feed additives are Lysine, threonine, tryptophan and methionine. Among them methionine was produced only by chemical process, but now methionine can also be produced by microbial fermentation, which can enlarge the choice of methionine from DL-form to L-form. Use of L-form methionine as feed additives reveals new nutritional value of L-methionine compared to DL-methionine. Recently, valine, arginine, isoleucine, and histidine are also included in feeds as functional nutrients thanks to their commercial availability and lower price. Technical progress in microbiology and bioengineering has been made more diverse amino acid to be used as feed additives. Then what would be the next amino acid as feed additivities based on microbial point of view? Leucine, glutamine, tyrosine and phenylalanine could be next possible amino acids based on metabolic pathways of microorganism. These amino acids share the pathways with former feed amino acids such as valine or tryptophan, which means that these can be produced with way that is more economical. In addition, these amino acids could be produced as mixed forms like glutamic acid/glutamine mixture, Tryptophan/tyrosine/phenylalanine mixture, or BCAA forms with cheaper price. Dried fermentation product such as lysine sulfate made by drying of microbial culture broth, could be one of the option for the combination of several new amino acids. Crude protein reduction in feed is one of the big nutritional trend to reach the ideal protein diet and environmental clean situation. Considering the use of new synthetic amino acids in feeds would be a potential way to realize the ideal protein diet.