Genetic engineering in biobutanol production and tolerance

Abstract

The growing need to address current energy and environmental problems has sparked an interest in developing improved biological methods to produce liquid fuels from renewable sources. Higher-chain alcohols possess chemical properties that are more similar to gasoline. Ethanol and butanol are two products which are used as biofuel. Butanol production was more concerned than ethanol because of its high octane number. Unfortunately, these alcohols are not produced efficiently in natural microorganisms, and thus economical production in industrial volumes remains a challenge. The synthetic biology, however, offers additional tools to engineer synthetic pathways in user-friendly hosts to help increase titers and productivity of bio-butanol. Knock out and over-expression of genes is the major approaches towards genetic manipulation and metabolic engineering of microbes. Yet there are TargeTron Technology, Antisense RNA and CRISPR technology has a vital role in genome manipulation of C.acetobutylicum. This review concentrates on the recent developments for efficient production of butanol and butanol tolerance by various genetically engineered microbes.