Microbial Cell Factories for the Production of Essential Amino Acids

Calderón-Toledo S.; Salcedo-Okuma C.; Zavaleta A.I. · Microbial Nutraceuticals: Products and Processes (2025) · DOI: 10.1002/9781394241538.ch2

Resumen

The production of amino acids by fermentation began more than 50 years ago, since when several companies have advanced in their biosynthesis and scale-up. The high demand for amino acids in the pharmaceutical and food industries has allowed the advancement of synthetic biology and biotechnology techniques for the production of amino acids. This chapter summarizes the main advances in the production of amino acids, in which strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli have been the most widely used. Techniques, such as enzymatic substitution with feedback resistance modulation, overexpression of genes linked to key steps of synthesis, promoter regulation, among others, have been applied. Advances in metabolic engineering have improved the production of these amino acids, which have focused on increasing the biosynthesis of intermediates, improving the availability of cofactors and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), decreasing co-products, and improving the export of amino acids. Fermentation strategies have also been applied to make their production more profitable. However, it is still a challenge to optimize the use of material resources, equipment, and processes that allow a competitive production with the high standards required by the market.