Engineering Microorganisms to Produce Bio-Based Monomers: Progress and Challenges

Bioplastics are polymers made from sustainable bio-based feedstocks. While the potential of producing bio-based monomers in microbes has been investigated for decades, their economic feasibility is still unsatisfactory compared with petroleum-derived methods. To improve the overall synthetic efficiency of microbial cell factories, three main strategies were summarized in this review: firstly, implementing approaches to improve the microbial utilization ability of cheap and abundant substrates; secondly, developing methods at enzymes, pathway, and cellular levels to enhance microbial production performance; thirdly, building technologies to enhance microbial pH, osmotic, and metabolites stress tolerance. Moreover, the challenges of, and some perspectives on, exploiting microorganisms as efficient cell factories for producing bio-based monomers are also discussed.

Automated summary

Bioplastics are polymers made from renewable bio-based materials. However, their economic feasibility in comparison to petroleum-derived methods is still not satisfactory, despite decades of research on producing bio-based monomers in microbes. This review summarizes three main strategies to improve the overall synthetic efficiency of microbial cell factories: improving microbial utilization of affordable substrates, enhancing production performance at the enzyme, pathway, and cellular levels, and developing technologies to increase microbial stress tolerance. The challenges and future perspectives of using microorganisms as efficient cell factories for bio-based monomer production are also discussed.