title: Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli to improve recombinant protein production.
abstract: Escherichia coli is one of the most widely used strains for recombinant protein production. However, obstacles also exist in both academic researches and industrial applications, such as the metabolic burden, the carbon source waste, and the cells' physiological deterioration. This article reviews recent approaches for improving recombinant protein production in metabolic engineering, including workhorse selection, stress factor application, and carbon flux regulation. Selecting a suitable host is the first key point for recombinant protein production. In general, it all depends on characteristics of the strains and the target proteins. It will be triggered cells physiological deterioration when the medium is significantly different from the cell's natural environment. Coexpression of stress factors can help proteins to fold into their native conformation. Carbon flux regulation is a direct approach for redirecting more carbon flux toward the desirable pathways and products. However, some undesirable consequences are usually found in metabolic engineering, such as glucose transport inhibition, cell growth retardation, and useless metabolite accumulation. More efficient regulators and platform cell factories should be explored to meet a variety of production demands.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China.
authors.forename: Xinjun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
authors.forename: Yamei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China.
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China. liuhuizhou@qibebt.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Huizhou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Biobased Materials, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China. xianmo@qibebt.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Mo
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0002-5972
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xian
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D002244:Carbon
keywords: Carbon flux regulation; Growth retardation; Metabolic engineering; Recombinant protein production; Stress factors; Workhorse selection