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Efforts Toward Industrial Biosynthesis of Isoprene

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Consequences of Microbial Interactions with Hydrocarbons, Oils, and Lipids: Production of Fuels and Chemicals

Part of the book series: Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology ((HHLM))

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Abstract

With wide applications, isoprene faces a growing global market. The increasing concerns about the environmental problems brought by petrochemical industry propel the research on bioproduction of isoprene. To date, numerous efforts have been made in the characterization and engineering of the isoprene biosynthesis pathway, leading to successful production of isoprene by bacteria and yeast. This chapter summarizes the research progresses in isoprene biosynthesis and introduces the isoprene biosynthesis in nature, the key enzyme isoprene synthase, and the development of isoprene-producing microorganisms. In particular, the efforts made toward industrial biosynthesis of isoprene using bacteria and yeast are discussed in detail, with special attention given to the metabolic engineering strategies adopted to achieve isoprene-producing strains with improved performance indices. The persisting issues and future research needs are presented as well.

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Acknowledgments

This book chapter is derived from our recent review paper “Engineering microbes for isoprene production” published in Metabolic Engineering (2016, 38: 125–138).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bioengineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310027, Hangzhou, China

    Lidan Ye & Hongwei Yu

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  1. Lidan Ye
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  2. Hongwei Yu
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Correspondence to Hongwei Yu .

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  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sang Yup Lee

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Ye, L., Yu, H. (2017). Efforts Toward Industrial Biosynthesis of Isoprene. In: Lee, S. (eds) Consequences of Microbial Interactions with Hydrocarbons, Oils, and Lipids: Production of Fuels and Chemicals. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50436-0_374

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