Synthetic Biology towards Engineering Microbial Lignin Biotransformation

Allison L Yaguchi; Stephen J Lee; Mark A Blenner

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2021.02.003

Synthetic Biology towards Engineering Microbial Lignin Biotransformation

Trends Biotechnol. 2021 Oct;39(10):1037-1064. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2021.02.003. Epub 2021 Mar 9.

Authors

Allison L Yaguchi¹, Stephen J Lee¹, Mark A Blenner²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, 206 South Palmetto Boulevard, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, 206 South Palmetto Boulevard, Clemson, SC 29634, USA; Current address: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, 590 Avenue 1743, Newark, DE 19713, USA. Electronic address: blenner@udel.edu.

PMID: 33712323
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2021.02.003

Abstract

Lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer on earth and is a major source of aromatic compounds; however, it is vastly underutilized owing to its heterogeneous and recalcitrant nature. Microorganisms have evolved efficient mechanisms that overcome these challenges to depolymerize lignin and funnel complex mixtures of lignin-derived monomers to central metabolites. This review summarizes recent synthetic biology efforts to enhance lignin depolymerization and aromatic catabolism in bacterial and fungal hosts for the production of both natural and novel bioproducts. We also highlight difficulties in engineering complex phenotypes and discuss the outlook for the future of lignin biological valorization.

Keywords: aromatic catabolism; consolidated bioprocessing; lignin; lignin depolymerization; synthetic biology.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Bacteria / genetics
Bacteria / metabolism
Biotransformation
Fungi / genetics
Fungi / metabolism
Lignin* / metabolism
Synthetic Biology*

Substances

Lignin