title: Escherichia coli as a fatty acid and biodiesel factory: current challenges and future directions.
abstract: Biodiesel has received widespread attention as a sustainable, environment-friendly, and alternative source of energy. It can be derived from plant, animal, and microbial organisms in the form of vegetable oil, fats, and lipids, respectively. However, biodiesel production from such sources is not economically feasible due to extensive downstream processes, such as trans-esterification and purification. To obtain cost-effective biodiesel, these bottlenecks need to be overcome. Escherichia coli, a model microorganism, has the potential to produce biodiesel directly from ligno-cellulosic sugars, bypassing trans-esterification. In this process, E. coli is engineered to produce biodiesel using metabolic engineering technology. The entire process of biodiesel production is carried out in a single microbial cell, bypassing the expensive downstream processing steps. This review focuses mainly on production of fatty acid and biodiesel in E. coli using metabolic engineering approaches. In the first part, we describe fatty acid biosynthesis in E. coli. In the second half, we discuss bottlenecks and strategies to enhance the production yield. A complete understanding of current developments in E. coli-based biodiesel production and pathway optimization strategies would reduce production costs for biofuels and plant-derived chemicals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. Rahman@kaist.ac.kr.|Department of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, University of Swat, Swat, 19130, Pakistan. Rahman@kaist.ac.kr.|Center for Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Swat, Swat, Pakistan. Rahman@kaist.ac.kr.|Department of Microbiology, AWKUM, Mardan, Pakistan. Rahman@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ziaur
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Naim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, University of Swat, Swat, 19130, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Javed
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nawab
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, AWKUM, Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ilyas
authors.affiliation: Bioenergy and Biochemical Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bong Hyun
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. sunkim@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Sun Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005227:Fatty Acids
keywords: Biodiesel; Biofuel; Fatty acid; Metabolic engineering; Microbial biofuel