High Value Chemicals, Breakthrough R & D, Reliance Industries Limited, Reliance Corporate Park, Thane Belapur Road, Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai, India
Review
Metabolic Engineering of Microorganisms to Produce Isoprene
Author(s): Piyush Sethia, Manmeet Ahuja and Vidhya Rangaswamy*
Isoprene is an industrially important five carbon compound primarily used for production of high quality synthetic
rubber. Two major pathways are involved in isoprene synthesis. The mevalonate pathway is present in eukaryotes,
archaebacteria and cytosol of higher plants whereas the non-mevalonate pathway exists in many eubacteria and
plastids in algae/plants. There have been continuous efforts to study and understand the phenomenon of biological
production of isoprene for more than half a century. Although, the current feasibility and cost advantage of
chemical processes leading to production of isoprene seems to be far from being dominated by a suitable biological
substitute, the fear of extinction of non-renewable resources (raw material for chemical processes) in the near future
prompts for a colossal expectation from the synthetic biology community. Technologi.. View more»