title: Engineering propionibacteria as versatile cell factories for the production of industrially important chemicals: advances, challenges, and prospects.
abstract: Propionibacteria are actinobacteria consisting of two principal groups: cutaneous and dairy. Cutaneous propionibacteria are considered primary pathogens to humans, whereas dairy propionibacteria are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Increasing attention has been focused on improving the performance of dairy propionibacteria for the production of industrially important chemicals, and significant advances have been made through strain engineering and process optimization in the production of flavor compounds, nutraceuticals, and antimicrobial compounds. In addition, genome sequencing of several propionibacteria species has been completed, deepening understanding of the metabolic and physiological features of these organisms. However, the metabolic engineering of propionibacteria still faces several challenges owing to the lack of efficient genome manipulation tools and the existence of various types of strong restriction-modification systems. The emergence of systems and synthetic biology provides new opportunities to overcome these bottlenecks. In this review, we first introduce the major species of propionibacteria and their properties and provide an overview of their functions and applications. We then discuss advances in the genome sequencing and metabolic engineering of these bacteria. Finally, we discuss systems and synthetic biology approaches for engineering propionibacteria as efficient and robust cell factories for the production of industrially important chemicals.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China.
authors.forename: Ningzi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhuge
authors.forename: Jianghua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hyun-Dong
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015280:DNA Restriction-Modification Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005503:Food Additives / Q000378:metabolism; D005516:Food Microbiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D007218:Industrial Microbiology; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D011422:Propionates / Q000378:metabolism; D011424:Propionibacterium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D001430:Bacteriocins; D015280:DNA Restriction-Modification Enzymes; D005503:Food Additives; D011422:Propionates; C029658:propionic acid