Abstract
Methane and methanol are regarded as alternative and highly attractive nonfood raw materials for the biotechnology sector. The supply of methane and methanol comes from both fossil and renewable resources, rendering them flexible and sustainable raw materials. Reduced one-carbon (C1) compounds are used by specialized groups of microorganisms, i.e., the methylotrophs, as their sole source of carbon and energy. While progress to engineer and use natural methylotrophs in biotechnology is ongoing, synthetic methylotrophs only recently have gained interest as a parallel approach both in academia and private industry. Synthetic methylotrophy refers to the design and rational engineering of methylotrophy to established non-methylotrophic production hosts for access to methane and methanol as feedstock while maintaining their biotechnological production potential. In this chapter, we will illustrate how combined systems and synthetic biology approaches capitalize on the metabolic versatility and engineered production pathways of industrially well-established microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Corynebacterium glutamicum, for biotransformation from methane and methanol. Challenges and current prospects for designing and engineering the next generation of synthetic methylotrophs are also discussed.
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Heux, S., Brautaset, T., Vorholt, J.A., Wendisch, V.F., Portais, J.C. (2018). Synthetic Methylotrophy: Past, Present, and Future. In: Kalyuzhnaya, M., Xing, XH. (eds) Methane Biocatalysis: Paving the Way to Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74866-5_9
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