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REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Synthetic Biology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1556516
Advancements in Metabolic Engineering: Unlocking the Potential of Key Organic Acids for Sustainable Industrial Applications
Provisionally accepted- Qilu University of Technology, Jinan, China
This review explores the advancements, application potential, and challenges of microbial metabolic engineering strategies for sustainable organic acid production. By integrating gene editing, pathway reconstruction, and dynamic regulation, microbial platforms have achieved enhanced biosynthesis of key organic acids such as pyruvate, lactic acid, and succinic acid. Strategies including by-product pathway knockout, key enzyme overexpression, and improved CO2 fixation have contributed to higher production efficiency. Additionally, utilizing non-food biomass sources, such as lignocellulose, algal feedstocks, and industrial waste, has reduced reliance on conventional carbon sources, supporting sustainability goals. However, challenges remain in substrate inhibition, purification complexity, and metabolic flux imbalances.Addressing these requires omics-driven metabolic optimization, stress-resistant strain development, and biorefinery integration. Future research should focus on system-level design to enhance cost-effectiveness and sustainability, advancing industrial biomanufacturing of organic acids.
Keywords: Pyruvate derivatives, Metabolic Engineering, Microbial Fermentation, Carbon sources; Organic acids, Organic acids
Received: 07 Jan 2025; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Xue, Liu, Yuan, Huang and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yi Jiang, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan, China
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