高级醇的微生物绿色制造

Microbial green manufacturing of higher alcohols

摘要:

高级醇是含有两个以上碳原子的醇类，具有比乙醇更优秀的燃料性能，是化石燃料的重要补充与替代品。利用微生物以可再生的生物质为原料进行高级醇的生产可同时缓解当前的能源与环境危机，已成为绿色生物制造的重大发展方向。天然的微生物仅能少量生产个别种类的高级醇，因此，通过代谢工程及合成生物学技术，在模式工业菌株中重构高级醇的合成途径，成为了克服高级醇生产瓶颈的必要手段。该领域自兴起以来已历经数十年发展，取得了多项开创性成果。本文作者有幸亲历了该领域从零到一、直至实现跨越式突破的完整历程。在代谢工程学科创立30周年之际，文中回顾了高级醇异源微生物合成的数个里程碑式工作，从途径创建、途经优化、原料扩展、底盘改造、产业化进程等多方面进行了分析总结。望以此激发学界对高级醇代谢工程的深入关注，促进新技术、新策略的开发应用，推动我国生物能源产业的创新升级。

Abstract:

Higher alcohols that contain more than two carbon atoms have better fuel properties than ethanol, making them important supplements and alternatives to fossil fuels. Using microbes to produce higher alcohols from renewable biomass can alleviate the current energy and environmental crises, and has become a major future direction for green biomanufacturing. Since natural microbes can only produce a few higher alcohols in small amounts, it is necessary to reconstruct the synthetic pathways for higher alcohols in model industrial strains through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology to overcome the metabolic bottlenecks. A series of milestones have been accomplished in past decades. The authors of this review have witnessed the entire journey of this field from its first success to the leaping development. On the 30th anniversary of the founding of the discipline of metabolic engineering, this review dates back to the great milestones in achieving heterologous production of higher alcohols in non-native strains. The design and optimization of high alcohol biosynthetic pathways, the expansion of feedstock, the engineering of host strains and the industrialization process are summarized. This review aims to draw further attention to microbial synthesis of higher alcohols, inspire the development of novel techniques and strategies of metabolic engineering, and promote the innovation and upgrade of China’s biofuel industry.