Current advances on biological production of fumaric acid

Fumaric acid is an industrially important platform chemical, which has been widely used in food, chemicals, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. Due to the rising price of raw materials in traditional petrochemical method and demand for sustainable development, fermentative fumaric acid production has attracted great attention. In this context, various strains with enhanced fumaric acid production or elimination of by-products were developed through mutagenesis or metabolic engineering. In addition, renewable organic wastes together with the fermentation process optimization have also been widely investigated. Accordingly, this review will comprehensively summarize the achievements of fermentative fumaric acid production in recent years and major obstacles occurring in industrialization to provide insights and perspective for future microbial fermentation of fumaric acid.