Metabolic engineering for improving L-tryptophan production in Escherichia coli.
- 2019-01-01
- Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology 46(1)
- Hao Niu
- Ruirui Li
- Quanfeng Liang
- Qingsheng Qi
- Qiang Li
- Pengfei Gu
- PubMed: 30426284
- DOI: 10.1007/s10295-018-2106-5
Study Design
- Type
- Review
L-Tryptophan is an important aromatic amino acid that is used widely in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Compared with the traditional synthetic methods, production of L-tryptophan by microbes is environmentally friendly and has low production costs, and feed stocks are renewable. With the development of metabolic engineering, highly efficient production of L-tryptophan in Escherichia coli has been achieved by eliminating negative regulation factors, improving the intracellular level of precursors, engineering of transport systems and overexpression of rate-limiting enzymes. However, challenges remain for L-tryptophan biosynthesis to be cost-competitive. In this review, successful and applicable strategies derived from metabolic engineering for increasing L-tryptophan accumulation in E. coli are summarized. In addition, perspectives for further efficient production of L-tryptophan are discussed.