Metabolic engineering strategies in biosynthesis of amino acids and their derivatives

The industrial production of amino acids has a history of more than 100 years, and is mostly used in animal feed and food additives. Many types of amino acids such as L-cysteine, β-alanine, S-adenosylmethionine, 4-hydroxyisocyanine acid and homoserine also have broad applications. Plant extraction and chemical synthesis are the commonly used methods to produce these amino acids and their derivatives. Compared with the way of chemical synthesis or separation and extraction, the use of microbial cells as a platform for the production of amino acids and derivatives has unique advantages such as green safety and sustainability. This review highlights the recent advances in developing metabolic engineering strategies including increase of the carbon sources uptake rate, elimination of the rate-limiting steps, enhancement of the carbon flux through the target pathway, remove of the feed-back inhibition effect and regulation of the intermediates and products transportation for biological production of amino acids and their derivatives. Our goals are to provide a landscape of current works and present guidelines to address future challenges in biosynthesis of amino acids and their derivatives using engineered microorganisms. © 2020, Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All right reserved.