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Systems biotechnology and metabolic engineering

Edited by Prof Sang Yup Lee

Microbial Cell Factories invites submissions to this ongoing thematic series on the topic of Systems biotechnology and metabolic engineering. It is now time to exploit systems approaches to microbial biotechnology, starting with up-stream (strain, cell and organism development) by metabolic engineering, which will ultimately lead to successful biotechnology development when combined with systems engineering of mid- to down-stream processes. Please see here for further details, including how to submit your new work to the series.

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Guest Editors declare no competing interests.

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  1. Phasin (PhaP), a kind of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) granule-associated proteins, has a role in controlling the properties of PHA granules surface, and is thought to have influence on PHA biosynthesis in PHA-pr...

    Authors: Yui Kawashima, Izumi Orita, Satoshi Nakamura and Toshiaki Fukui
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:187
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), have been considered to be good candidates for completely biodegradable polymers due to their similar mechanical properties to petroleum-d...

    Authors: Zhenquan Lin, Yan Zhang, Qianqian Yuan, Qiaojie Liu, Yifan Li, Zhiwen Wang, Hongwu Ma, Tao Chen and Xueming Zhao
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:185
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. 2,3-Butanediol is an important bulk chemical with a wide range of applications. In bacteria, this metabolite is synthesised from pyruvate via a three-step pathway involving α-acetolactate synthase, α-acetolact...

    Authors: Dušica Radoš, Ana Lúcia Carvalho, Stefan Wieschalka, Ana Rute Neves, Bastian Blombach, Bernhard J. Eikmanns and Helena Santos
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:171
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. The industrial production of riboflavin mostly relies on the microbial fermentation of flavinogenic microorganisms and Ashbya gossypii is the main industrial producer of the vitamin. Accordingly, bioengineering s...

    Authors: Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Cristina Serrano-Amatriain, Alberto Jiménez and José Luis Revuelta
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:163
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. The microbial conversion of plant biomass into value added products is an attractive option to address the impacts of petroleum dependency. The Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli is commonly used as host fo...

    Authors: Dongfang Gao, Yaqi Luan, Qian Wang, Quanfeng Liang and Qingsheng Qi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:159
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Avermectin and milbemycin are important 16-membered macrolides that have been widely used as pesticides in agriculture. However, the wide use of these pesticides inevitably causes serious drug resistance, it i...

    Authors: Ji Zhang, Yi-Jun Yan, Jing An, Sheng-Xiong Huang, Xiang-Jing Wang and Wen-Sheng Xiang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:152
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Lignocellulosic substrates and pulping process streams are of increasing relevance to biorefineries for second generation biofuels and biochemical production. They are known to be rich in sugars and inhibitors...

    Authors: Peter Temitope Adeboye, Maurizio Bettiga, Fredrik Aldaeus, Per Tomas Larsson and Lisbeth Olsson
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:149
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Flavonoids are bio-active specialized plant metabolites which mainly occur as different glycosides. Due to the increasing market demand, various biotechnological approaches have been developed which use Escherich...

    Authors: Frederik De Bruyn, Maarten Van Brempt, Jo Maertens, Wouter Van Bellegem, Dries Duchi and Marjan De Mey
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:138
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Ethylene glycol (EG) is a bulk chemical that is mainly used as an anti-freezing agent and a raw material in the synthesis of plastics. Production of commercial EG currently exclusively relies on chemical synth...

    Authors: Ceren Alkim, Yvan Cam, Debora Trichez, Clément Auriol, Lucie Spina, Amélie Vax, François Bartolo, Philippe Besse, Jean Marie François and Thomas Walther
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:127
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens B10-127 exhibited an excellent ability for industrial-scale microbial fermentation of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) from biodiesel-derived glycerol. However, the a...

    Authors: Taowei Yang, Zhiming Rao, Xian Zhang, Meijuan Xu, Zhenghong Xu and Shang-Tian Yang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:122
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. A Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain carrying deletions in all three pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) genes (also called Pdc negative yeast) represents a non-ethanol producing platform strain for the production of pyruv...

    Authors: Yiming Zhang, Guodong Liu, Martin K M Engqvist, Anastasia Krivoruchko, Björn M Hallström, Yun Chen, Verena Siewers and Jens Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:116
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Sugar alcohols have been widely applied in the fields of food and medicine owing to their unique properties. Compared to chemical production, microbial production of sugar alcohols has become attractive becaus...

    Authors: Guoqiang Zhang, Yuping Lin, Xianni Qi, Lixian Wang, Peng He, Qinhong Wang and Yanhe Ma
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:112
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. One of the bottlenecks in production of biochemicals and pharmaceuticals in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is stable and homogeneous expression of pathway genes. Integration of genes into the genome of the production o...

    Authors: Carlotta Ronda, Jérôme Maury, Tadas Jakočiu̅nas, Simo Abdessamad Baallal Jacobsen, Susanne Manuela Germann, Scott James Harrison, Irina Borodina, Jay D Keasling, Michael Krogh Jensen and Alex Toftgaard Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:97
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Earth’s climate is warming as a result of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion. Bioenergy, which includes biodiesel, biohydrogen and bioethanol, has emerged as a sustainable ...

    Authors: Antonio Valle, Gema Cabrera, Domingo Cantero and Jorge Bolivar
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:93
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. The overexpression of key enzymes in a metabolic pathway is a frequently used genetic engineering strategy for strain improvement. Metabolic control analysis has been proposed to quantitatively determine key e...

    Authors: Yanfei Zhang, Qinglong Meng, Hongwu Ma, Yongfei Liu, Guoqiang Cao, Xiaoran Zhang, Ping Zheng, Jibin Sun, Dawei Zhang, Wenxia Jiang and Yanhe Ma
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:86
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Microbes are extensively engineered to produce compounds of biotechnological or pharmaceutical interest. However, functional integration of synthetic pathways into the respective host cell metabolism and optim...

    Authors: Philana V van Summeren-Wesenhagen, Raphael Voges, Alexander Dennig, Sascha Sokolowsky, Stephan Noack, Ulrich Schwaneberg and Jan Marienhagen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:79
    Content type: Technical Notes Published on:

  24. Styrene and its derivatives as monomers and petroleum-based feedstocks are valuable as raw materials in industrial processes. The chemical reaction for styrene production uses harsh reaction conditions such as...

    Authors: Sun-Young Kang, Oksik Choi, Jae Kyoung Lee, Jung-Oh Ahn, Jong Seog Ahn, Bang Yeon Hwang and Young-Soo Hong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:78
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. A multi-monocistronic synthetic vector was used to assemble multiple genes of a nucleotide diphosphate (NDP)-sugar biosynthetic pathway to construct robust genetic circuits for the production of valuable flavo...

    Authors: Prakash Parajuli, Ramesh Prasad Pandey, Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang, Amit Kumar Chaudhary and Jae Kyung Sohng
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:76
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Lactic acid is the building block of poly-lactic acid (PLA), a biopolymer that could be set to replace petroleum-based plastics. To make lactic acid production cost-effective, the production process should be ...

    Authors: Nadège Liaud, Marie-Noëlle Rosso, Nicolas Fabre, Sylvaine Crapart, Isabelle Herpoël-Gimbert, Jean-Claude Sigoillot, Sana Raouche and Anthony Levasseur
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:66
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Coumarins are a major group of plant secondary metabolites that serves as defense compounds against pathogens. Although coumarins can be obtained from diverse plant sources, the use of microorganisms to synthe...

    Authors: So-Mi Yang, Geun Young Shim, Bong-Gyu Kim and Joong-Hoon Ahn
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:65
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Isobutanol is an important biorefinery target alcohol that can be used as a fuel, fuel additive, or commodity chemical. Baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a promising organism ...

    Authors: Kengo Ida, Jun Ishii, Fumio Matsuda, Takashi Kondo and Akihiko Kondo
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:62
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. Liquid fuels needed for the global transportation industry can be produced from sugars derived from plant-based lignocellulosics. Lignocellulosics contain a range of sugars, only some of which (such as cellulo...

    Authors: Shuchi H Desai, Christine A Rabinovitch-Deere, Zhiliang Fan and Shota Atsumi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:52
    Content type: Research Published on:

  34. Microbial lipids (triacylglycerols, TAG) have received large attention for a sustainable production of oleochemicals and biofuels. Rhodosporidium toruloides can accumulate lipids up to 70% of its cell mass under ...

    Authors: Rajesh Reddy Bommareddy, Wael Sabra, Garima Maheshwari and An-Ping Zeng
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:36
    Content type: Research Published on:

  35. Arginine is a high-value product, especially for the pharmaceutical industry. Growing demand for environmental-friendly and traceable products have stressed the need for microbial production of this amino acid...

    Authors: Mireille Ginesy, Jaroslav Belotserkovsky, Josefine Enman, Leif Isaksson and Ulrika Rova
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:29
    Content type: Research Published on:

  37. Gamma-aminobutylate (GABA) is an important chemical in pharmacetucal field and chemical industry. GABA has mostly been produced in lactic acid bacteria by adding L-glutamate to the culture medium since L-glutamat...

    Authors: Jae Woong Choi, Sung Sun Yim, Seung Hwan Lee, Taek Jin Kang, Si Jae Park and Ki Jun Jeong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:21
    Content type: Research Published on:

  38. As bacteria-originated crude violacein, a natural indolocarbazole product, consists of violacein and deoxyviolacein, and can potentially be a new type of natural antibiotics, the reconstruction of an effective...

    Authors: Ming-Yue Fang, Chong Zhang, Song Yang, Jin-Yu Cui, Pei-Xia Jiang, Kai Lou, Masaaki Wachi and Xin-Hui Xing
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:8
    Content type: Research Published on:

  39. The aromatic compounds cinnamic acid (CA) and p-hydroxycinnamic acid (pHCA) are used as flavoring agents as well as precursors of chemicals. These compounds are present in plants at low concentrations, therefore,...

    Authors: Alejandra Vargas-Tah, Luz María Martínez, Georgina Hernández-Chávez, Mario Rocha, Alfredo Martínez, Francisco Bolívar and Guillermo Gosset
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:6
    Content type: Research Published on:

  42. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a biodegradable bio-plastic, is one of the most common homopolymer of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHB is synthesized by a variety of microorganisms as intracellular carbon and ...

    Authors: Yan Zhang, Zhenquan Lin, Qiaojie Liu, Yifan Li, Zhiwen Wang, Hongwu Ma, Tao Chen and Xueming Zhao
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:172
    Content type: Research Published on:

  44. Production of monoterpenoids as valuable chemicals using recombinant microbes is a growing field of interest. Unfortunately, antimicrobial activity of most monoterpenoids hampers a wide application of microorg...

    Authors: Jia Mi, Daniela Becher, Patrice Lubuta, Sarah Dany, Kerstin Tusch, Hendrik Schewe, Markus Buchhaupt and Jens Schrader
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:170
    Content type: Research Published on:

  46. Steady-state 13C-based metabolic flux analysis (13C-MFA) is the most powerful method available for the quantification of intracellular fluxes. These analyses include concertedly linked experimental and computatio...

    Authors: Mikhail S Shupletsov, Lyubov I Golubeva, Svetlana S Rubina, Dmitry A Podvyaznikov, Shintaro Iwatani and Sergey V Mashko
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:152
    Content type: Research Published on:

  48. Saccharopolyspora erythraea was extensively utilized for the industrial-scale production of erythromycin A (Er-A), a macrolide antibiotic commonly used in human medicine. Yet, S. erythraea lacks regulatory genes...

    Authors: Hang Wu, Meng Chen, Yongrong Mao, Weiwei Li, Jingtao Liu, Xunduan Huang, Ying Zhou, Bang-Ce Ye, Lixin Zhang, David T Weaver and Buchang Zhang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:158
    Content type: Research Published on:

  49. The aromatic compound catechol is used as a precursor of chemical products having multiple applications. This compound is currently manufactured by chemical synthesis from petroleum-derived raw materials. The ...

    Authors: Víctor E Balderas-Hernández, Luis G Treviño-Quintanilla, Georgina Hernández-Chávez, Alfredo Martinez, Francisco Bolívar and Guillermo Gosset
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:136
    Content type: Research Published on:

  50. Cyanobacteria are increasingly recognized as promising cell factories for the production of renewable biofuels and chemical feedstocks from sunlight, CO2, and water. However, most biotechnological applications...

    Authors: Philipp Erdrich, Henning Knoop, Ralf Steuer and Steffen Klamt
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2014 13:128
    Content type: Research Published on: