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reasonable hope to replace fossil fuels. Through metabolic engineering of production
pathways, alternative products can be made that have characteristics closer to their petroleum
equivalents, easing the barrier for adoption. These alternatives range from slight modifications
to existing metabolites, to new pathways that create naturally unique compounds. These
naturally rare products will also require extensive pathway engineering and optimization to
achieve effective production capacities—one of the central strengths of metabolic engineering.
TOOLS OF METABOLIC ENGINEERING
To understand how metabolic engineering plays a role in biofuels development and how it
takes an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, it is important to first understand its
main strategies and tools. The strategies of metabolic engineering can be compartmentalized
into three steps: (1) understanding, (2) designing, and (3) engineering the metabolic network.
Each of these steps uses tools and technologies adopted from a range of disciplines. An
overview of the strategies of metabolic engineering can be found in Figure 1.1.
