Improving the robustness of industrial microbes through metabolic engineering

Microbial fermentations and bioconversions play a central role in the production of pharmaceuticals, enzymes and chemicals. To meet the demands of industrial production, it is desirable that microbes maintain a maximized carbon flux towards target metabolites regardless of fluctuations in intracellular or extracellular environments. This requires cellular systems maintain functional stability and dynamic homeostasis in a given physiological state, or manipulate transitions between different physiological states. Stable maintenance or smooth transition can be achieved through engineering dynamic controllability, modular and hierarchical organization, or functional redundancy, three key features of biological robustness in a cellular system. This presentation will summarize how metabolic engineering can be used to improve the robustness of industrial microbes. A few of our recent examples will be introduced to illustrate how to rationally engineer and improve the robustness and fitness of microbial cell factories through enhancing, regulating, and optimizing cellular energy metabolism.