title: Escherichia coli for biofuel production: bridging the gap from promise to practice.
abstract: The anticipated shift of biofuel feedstocks from maize to lignocellulose presents challenges in developing effective biomass pretreatment approaches, which impacts the selection and capabilities of fuel-producing organisms. For a viable biofuel production process, the ideal fuel-producing organism must be able to efficiently convert a variety of sugars to fuels anaerobically at near-theoretical yields, resist inhibitors generated by biomass pretreatment and exhibit low product toxicity. Escherichia coli finds extensive use as a model system, but has not been widely used as an industrial host. This review highlights recent advances in metabolic engineering of biofuel-synthesis pathways in E. coli and summarizes insights gained into regulation of those pathways, and describes progress toward overcoming the challenges facing its adoption as a biofuel-production strain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huffer
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Roche
authors.forename: Harvey W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Blanch
authors.forename: Douglas S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D003313:Zea mays / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; C036909:lignocellulose; D008031:Lignin