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Added Value Chemicals and Biofuels

Edited by Prof Akihiko Kondo

To ensure a reliable future source of added value chemicals and energy, the utilization of sustainable biomass has considerable advantages over petroleum-based sources. Microbial Cell Factories presents this ongoing series to cover the development of microorganisms for the production of various added value chemicals and advanced biofuels from biomass. Potential topics include, but are not limited, to engineering microbial strains with high biomass hydrolysis activity, high product yield, productivities and titers, ability to use many carbon sources, and resistance to toxic compounds released during the pretreatment of biomass.

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. Ergothioneine (EGT) has a unique antioxidant ability and diverse beneficial effects on human health. But the content of EGT is very low in its natural producing organisms such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and mushr...

    Authors: Ying-Hao Yu, Hong-Yu Pan, Li-Qiong Guo, Jun-Fang Lin, Han-Lu Liao and Hao-Ying Li
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:164
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. 2-Acetamidophenol (AAP) is an aromatic compound with the potential for antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-platelet, and anti-arthritic activities. Due to the biosynthesis of AAP is not yet fully un...

    Authors: Shuqi Guo, Yunxiao Wang, Wei Wang, Hongbo Hu and Xuehong Zhang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:105
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. 3-Ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenase (KstD) is a key enzyme in the metabolic pathway for chemical modifications of steroid hormones. Only a few KstDs have thus far been characterized biochemically and applied for th...

    Authors: Ruijie Zhang, Xiangcen Liu, Yushi Wang, Yuchang Han, Junsong Sun, Jiping Shi and Baoguo Zhang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2018 17:77
    Content type: RESEARCH Published on:

  5. Plant natural products (PNPs) are widely used as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, seasonings, pigments, etc., with a huge commercial value on the global market. However, most of these PNPs are still being extr...

    Authors: Xiaonan Liu, Wentao Ding and Huifeng Jiang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2017 16:125
    Content type: Review Published on:

  6. Low catalytic activities of pathway enzymes are often a limitation when using microbial based chemical production. Recent studies indicated that the enzyme activity of aldehyde decarbonylase (AD) is a critical...

    Authors: Min-Kyoung Kang, Yongjin J. Zhou, Nicolaas A. Buijs and Jens Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2017 16:74
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Pterostilbene, a structural analog of resveratrol, has higher oral bioavailability and bioactivity than that of the parent compound; but is far less abundant in natural sources. Thus, to efficiently obtain thi...

    Authors: Kyung Taek Heo, Sun-Young Kang and Young-Soo Hong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2017 16:30
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Microbial production of monoterpenes provides a promising substitute for traditional chemical-based methods, but their production is lagging compared with sesquiterpenes. Geraniol, a valuable monoterpene alcoh...

    Authors: Jianzhi Zhao, Chen Li, Yan Zhang, Yu Shen, Jin Hou and Xiaoming Bao
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2017 16:17
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. The yeast amino acid catabolism plays an important role in flavour generation since higher alcohols and acetate esters, amino acid catabolism end products, are key components of overall flavour and aroma in fe...

    Authors: Jiri Stribny, Gabriele Romagnoli, Roberto Pérez-Torrado, Jean-Marc Daran and Amparo Querol
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:51
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. With increasing concern about the environmental impact of a petroleum based economy, focus has shifted towards greener production strategies including metabolic engineering of microbes for the conversion of pl...

    Authors: Sarah Rodriguez, Charles M. Denby, T. Van Vu, Edward E. K. Baidoo, George Wang and Jay D. Keasling
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:48
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Several plant diterpenes have important biological properties. Among them, forskolin is a complex labdane-type diterpene whose biological activity stems from its ability to activate adenylyl cyclase and to ele...

    Authors: Codruta Ignea, Efstathia Ioannou, Panagiota Georgantea, Fotini A. Trikka, Anastasia Athanasakoglou, Sofia Loupassaki, Vassilios Roussis, Antonios M. Makris and Sotirios C. Kampranis
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:46
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. PM100117 and PM100118 are glycosylated polyketides with remarkable antitumor activity, which derive from the marine symbiotic actinobacteria Streptomyces caniferus GUA-...

    Authors: Raúl García Salcedo, Carlos Olano, Cristina Gómez, Rogelio Fernández, Alfredo F. Braña, Carmen Méndez, Fernando de la Calle and José A. Salas
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:44
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Fermentative aromas play a key role in the organoleptic profile of young wines. Their production depends both on yeast strain and fermentation conditions. A present-day trend in the wine industry consists in d...

    Authors: Stéphanie Rollero, Jean-Roch Mouret, Isabelle Sanchez, Carole Camarasa, Anne Ortiz-Julien, Jean-Marie Sablayrolles and Sylvie Dequin
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:32
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Imbalance in cofactors causing the accumulation of intermediates in biosynthesis pathways is a frequently occurring problem in metabolic engineering when optimizing a production pathway in a microorganism. In ...

    Authors: Veerle E. T. Maervoet, Sofie L. De Maeseneire, Fatma G. Avci, Joeri Beauprez, Wim K. Soetaert and Marjan De Mey
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:23
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Plant parasitic nematodes are harmful to agricultural crops and plants, and may cause severe yield losses. Cinnamaldehyde, a volatile, yellow liquid commonly used as a flavoring or food additive, is increasing...

    Authors: Hyun Bae Bang, Yoon Hyeok Lee, Sun Chang Kim, Chang Keun Sung and Ki Jun Jeong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:16
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Protoilludene is a valuable sesquiterpene and serves as a precursor for several medicinal compounds and antimicrobial chemicals. It can be synthesized by heterologous expression of protoilludene synthase in Esche...

    Authors: Liyang Yang, Chonglong Wang, Jia Zhou and Seon-Won Kim
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:14
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Sustainable alternatives for the production of fuels and chemicals are needed to reduce our dependency on fossil resources and to avoid the negative impact of their excessive use on the global climate. Lignoce...

    Authors: Stefan Marcus Gaida, Andrea Liedtke, Andreas Heinz Wilhelm Jentges, Benedikt Engels and Stefan Jennewein
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:6
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. Enantiopure (S)-1-(4-methoxyphenyl) ethanol {(S)-MOPE} can be employed as an important synthon for the synthesis of cycloalkyl [b] indoles with the treatment function for g...

    Authors: Ping Wei, Jing Liang, Jing Cheng, Min-Hua Zong and Wen-Yong Lou
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:5
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one important chemical building block that is well known as a biodegradable and a biocompatible plastic. The traditional lactate fermentation pr...

    Authors: Nilnate Assavasirijinda, Deyong Ge, Bo Yu, Yanfen Xue and Yanhe Ma
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:3
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Isepamicin is a weakly toxic but highly active aminoglycoside antibiotic derivative of gentamicin B. Gentamicin B is a naturally occurring minor component isolated from Micromonospora echinospora. 2ʹ-NH2-containi...

    Authors: Xianpu Ni, Zhenpeng Sun, Yawen Gu, Hao Cui and Huanzhang Xia
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2016 15:1
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Tannase is an enzyme that catalyses the breakdown of ester bonds in gallotannins such as tannic acid. In recent years, the interest on bacterial tannases has increased b...

    Authors: Pedro Aguilar-Zárate, Mario A. Cruz, Julio Montañez, Raúl Rodríguez-Herrera, Jorge E. Wong-Paz, Ruth E. Belmares and Cristóbal N. Aguilar
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:209
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Although some microorganisms can convert glycerol into valuable products such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, the yields are relative low due primarily to an inefficient assimilation of glycerol. Mortierella alpi...

    Authors: Guangfei Hao, Haiqin Chen, Zhennan Gu, Hao Zhang, Wei Chen and Yong Q. Chen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:205
    Content type: Research Published on:

  30. Methylxanthines are natural and synthetic compounds found in many foods, drinks, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Aside from caffeine, production of many methylxanthines is currently performed by chemical synth...

    Authors: Khalid H. R. Algharrawi, Ryan M. Summers, Sridhar Gopishetty and Mani Subramanian
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:203
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. Adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP) is consumed as a biological energy source by many intracellular reactions. Thus, the intracellular ATP supply is required to maintain cellular ho...

    Authors: Kiyotaka Y. Hara and Akihiko Kondo
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:198
    Content type: Review Published on:

  33. As a metabolic engineering tool, an adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiment was performed to increase the specific growth rate (µ) in an Escherichia coli strain lacking PTS, originally engineered to increa...

    Authors: César Aguilar, Noemí Flores, Fernando Riveros-McKay, Diana Sahonero-Canavesi, Susy Beatriz Carmona, Otto Geiger, Adelfo Escalante and Francisco Bolívar
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:194
    Content type: Research Published on:

  34. Quorum sensing (QS) networks are more commonly known as acyl homoserine lactone (HSL) networks. Recently, p-coumaroyl-HSL has been found in a photosynthetic bacterium. p-coumaroyl-HSL is derived from a lignin mon...

    Authors: Sun-Young Kang, Jae Kyoung Lee, Jae-Hyuk Jang, Bang Yeon Hwang and Young-Soo Hong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:191
    Content type: Research Published on:

  35. 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:

  37. Some types of flavonoid intermediates seemed to be restricted to plants. Naringenin is a typical plant metabolite, that has never been reported to be produced in prokari...

    Authors: Rubén Álvarez-Álvarez, Alma Botas, Silvia M. Albillos, Angel Rumbero, Juan F. Martín and Paloma Liras
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:178
    Content type: Research Published on:

  38. 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:

  39. There is a strong interest in using photosynthetic cyanobacteria as production hosts for biofuels and chemicals. Recent work has shown the benefit of pathway engineering, enzyme tolerance, and co-factor usage ...

    Authors: Josefine Anfelt, Danuta Kaczmarzyk, Kiyan Shabestary, Björn Renberg, Johan Rockberg, Jens Nielsen, Mathias Uhlén and Elton P. Hudson
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:167
    Content type: Research Published on:

  40. 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:

  44. Glutathione (GSH), a pivotal non-protein thiol, can be biosynthesized through three pathways in different organisms: (1) two consecutive enzymatic reactions catalyzed by γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (Gsh1 or ...

    Authors: Liang Tang, Weiwei Wang, Wenlong Zhou, Kai Cheng, Yan Yang, Minzhi Liu, Kedi Cheng and Wei Wang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:139
    Content type: Research Published on:

  45. 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:

  46. Monoterpenes are important contributors to grape and wine aroma. Moreover, certain monoterpenes have been shown to display health benefits with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer or hypotensive prope...

    Authors: Ester Pardo, Juan Rico, José Vicente Gil and Margarita Orejas
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:136
    Content type: Research Published on:

  47. Synthetic glucocorticoids like methylprednisolone (medrol) are of high pharmaceutical interest and represent powerful drugs due to their anti-inflammatory and immunosupp...

    Authors: Simone Brixius-Anderko, Lina Schiffer, Frank Hannemann, Bernd Janocha and Rita Bernhardt
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:135
    Content type: Research Published on:

  49. 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:

  50. l-Threonine is an important amino acid for animal feed. Though the industrial fermentation technology of threonine achieved a very high level, t...

    Authors: Ya’nan Liu, Qinggang Li, Ping Zheng, Zhidan Zhang, Yongfei Liu, Cunmin Sun, Guoqiang Cao, Wenjuan Zhou, Xiaowei Wang, Dawei Zhang, Tongcun Zhang, Jibin Sun and Yanhe Ma
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2015 14:121
    Content type: Research Published on: