title: Harnessing the power of microbial metabolism.
abstract: Microorganisms are rich repositories of genetic material encoding many activities of potential interest. Recent advances make identifying and exploiting the metabolic treasures of uncultured microbes an easier proposition. Improved expression vectors and metagenomic screening techniques make it easier to identify activities of interest. Synthetic biology and efficient genome editing techniques allow microbial genomes to be modified almost without restriction. Computational approaches based on organism-wide analysis of transcription, protein synthesis and metabolic fluxes make it possible to accurately predict the outcome of the metabolic processes and modifications required for optimization. Together these advances represent a major breakthrough in microbial biotechnology that is expected to yield new generations of tailor-made biocatalysts suitable for multiple biotechnological applications.
authors.affiliation: Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo, Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas/Junta de Andalucía, and Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera, Km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: esansan@upo.es.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santero
authors.affiliation: Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo, Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas/Junta de Andalucía, and Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera, Km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Belén
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Floriano
authors.affiliation: Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo, Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas/Junta de Andalucía, and Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera, Km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Govantes
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001709:Biotechnology; D019295:Computational Biology; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D056186:Metagenomics; D058615:Synthetic Biology