About this Research Topic
Escherichia coli is the best-characterized bacterial species and it has been extensively used in both basic molecular biology and biotechnology. E. coli was the first cell host to produce recombinant proteins, for instance insulin, and it is still used for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Also, its plasticity to incorporate heterologous functional genes and the advancement of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic platforms and also genome editing make E. coli an excellent system to produce chemicals for agricultural, food, industrial or environmental applications. Biotransformation of either an external substrate into a chemical product or a carbon source into metabolites, has been extensively achieved in E. coli. These metabolites can also be precursors or commodities of biofuels or other chemicals through metabolic and/or protein engineering. The application of adaptative evolution and/or the modification of autologous and heterologous enzymes by directed evolution have expanded the potential of this amazing microorganism in industrial applications. Moreover, Systems Biology has facilitated a deeper comprehension of the different biological functions of a living cell by modelling the system with omics data and computational analysis. These tools combined with Synthetic Biology and other metabolic engineering strategies allow the design of novel strategies for rewiring the metabolism, taking into account all the metabolic network, in the holistic concept of Systems Metabolic Engineering.
The development of sustainable bio-based processes is becoming an alternative to the production of chemicals and fuels by chemical synthesis. The application of biotechnological processes to the production of both bulk and fine chemicals has led to “biorefinery” as a novel concept for a renewable and sustainable industry, reaching the principles of the Green Chemistry. These procedures, also known as biotransformations or biocatalysis, is frequently used living cells which uses the microorganisms as a whole-cell factories capable of recycling cofactors required in complex catalysis and its metabolic network can be rewired using metabolic engineering for optimization of yields and productivity of target compounds. In these procedures waste materials can be used as carbon sources to feed microorganisms in order to revalorize its material to the compounds of interest to implement a Circular Economy.
This research topic is focused in biotechnological applications using E. coli strains as a microbial cell factory in the synthesis of several compounds using metabolic engineering of industrial interest such as:
• Biofuels
• Metabolites for pharmaceutical, agrochemical or food applications
• Polymers
• Secondary metabolites
The development of sustainable bio-based processes is becoming an alternative to the production of chemicals and fuels by chemical synthesis. The application of biotechnological processes to the production of both bulk and fine chemicals has led to “biorefinery” as a novel concept for a renewable and sustainable industry, reaching the principles of the Green Chemistry. These procedures, also known as biotransformations or biocatalysis, is frequently used living cells which uses the microorganisms as a whole-cell factories capable of recycling cofactors required in complex catalysis and its metabolic network can be rewired using metabolic engineering for optimization of yields and productivity of target compounds. In these procedures waste materials can be used as carbon sources to feed microorganisms in order to revalorize its material to the compounds of interest to implement a Circular Economy.
This research topic is focused in biotechnological applications using E. coli strains as a microbial cell factory in the synthesis of several compounds using metabolic engineering of industrial interest such as:
• Biofuels
• Metabolites for pharmaceutical, agrochemical or food applications
• Polymers
• Secondary metabolites
Keywords: biocatalysis, fermentation, industrial biotechnology, bioengineering, E.coli, metabolic engineering, green chemistry, omics, biofuels
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