Concerns about climate change and environmental pollution have brought more attention to the production of petrochemical products and other important industrial chemicals using biosynthesis as a sustainable alternative to other synthesis processes. In order to leverage the use of microorganisms to produce various chemical substances, it is necessary to first construct a biosynthetic pathway toward the desired product that can be introduced into the microorganism; additionally, it is sometimes necessary to employ chemical methods along with bioengineering methods. A research team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently published an interactive, online metabolic map for producing bio-based chemicals, which compiles all available pathways of biological and/or chemical reactions that lead to the production of certain petrochemicals and many other important chemical products.
The team first compiled and published a map of these pathways in Nature Catalysis in 2019, and the map was distributed in the form of a poster to industries and academia so that the synthesis paths of bio-based chemicals could be checked at a glance. Now, the map has been expanded into an interactive, searchable form online, which anyone can access on the internet to quickly explore efficient synthesis paths for desired products. The map visualizes how these industrial chemicals can be produced from renewable biomass feedstock via biological or chemical reaction steps, which are color coded in blue and red, respectively. Users can zoom in and out anywhere on the map as well as search by compound name, reaction name, PMID and more. The map can be viewed online here.
The new map was also published in Trends in Biotechnology, where the authors further discuss the production of natural compounds used for diverse purposes such as food and medicine, which will help in designing novel pathways through similar approaches, or by exploiting the promiscuity of enzymes described in the map.
Co-first authors Woo Dae Jang and Gi Bae Kim said that they “conducted this study to address the demand for updating the previously distributed chemicals map and enhancing its versatility.”
“The map is expected to be utilized in a variety of research and in efforts to set strategies and prospects for chemical production incorporating bio and chemical methods that are detailed in the map,” the researchers said.
The map can also serve as a blueprint for further ideas on producing desired chemicals through biological and chemical reactions, aiding in the design and optimization of new metabolic pathways for biosynthesis of target chemicals, added corresponding author Sang Yup Lee.