Abstract
Ecological concerns have recently led to the increasing trend to upgrade carbon contained in waste streams into valuable chemicals. One of these components is acetate. Its microbial upgrading is possible in various species, with Escherichia coli being the best-studied. Several chemicals derived from acetate have already been successfully produced in E. coli on a laboratory scale, including acetone, itaconic acid, mevalonate, and tyrosine. As acetate is a carbon source with a low energy content compared to glucose or glycerol, energy- and redox-balancing plays an important role in acetate-based growth and production. In addition to the energetic challenges, acetate has an inhibitory effect on microorganisms, reducing growth rates, and limiting product concentrations. Moreover, extensive metabolic engineering is necessary to obtain a broad range of acetate-based products. In this review, we illustrate some of the necessary energetic considerations to establish robust production processes by presenting calculations of maximum theoretical product and carbon yields. Moreover, different strategies to deal with energetic and metabolic challenges are presented. Finally, we summarize ways to alleviate acetate toxicity and give an overview of process engineering measures that enable sustainable acetate-based production of value-added chemicals.
Highlights
When producing value-added chemicals or recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli, acetate formation can pose challenges
Since E. coli BL21(DE3) exhibits a reduced acetate accumulation in glucose batches, recombinant protein production has shifted towards this host strain [16]
Recent achievements suggest that insights into the acetate metabolism of different microbial species combined with metabolic engineering of industrial host organisms seem to be the way towards sustainable production of value-added chemicals [33,34,35,36,37]
Summary
When producing value-added chemicals or recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli, acetate formation can pose challenges. The amount of accumulated acetate may vary between different E. coli strains. Since E. coli BL21(DE3) exhibits a reduced acetate accumulation in glucose batches, recombinant protein production has shifted towards this host strain [16]. Recent achievements suggest that insights into the acetate metabolism of different microbial species combined with metabolic engineering of industrial host organisms seem to be the way towards sustainable production of value-added chemicals [33,34,35,36,37]. We will present products that have already been successfully produced, highlight energetic aspects of growth on acetate, and discuss challenges that need to be overcome by metabolic and process engineering
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