Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms to Produce L-Aspartate and Its Derivatives

Abstract

Metabolic engineering is a promising strategy to realize green synthesis of valued chemicals derived from petroleum. According to the literature, cell factories for producing L-aspartate and its derivatives (β-alanine, ectoine, 3-hydroxypropionate, D-pantothenic acid and L-homoserine) have been developed. In this review, we firstly introduced the functions, applications and markets of L-aspartate and its derivatives. Then, the current research progress on microbial production of them was elaborated in detail. Finally, we have discussed the limiting factors and given some suggestions for realizing applications of engineered bacteria in the industry, including metabolic engineering of the bacteria to increase the titer, yield and productivity of the target products, fermentation condition optimization and downstream purification. With the development of novel technologies and increased investments in synthetic biology, it is promising to realize sustainable production of L-aspartate and its derivatives at the industrial scale in the future.