ABSTRACT
Platform chemicals are molecules with numerous functional groups that possess the ability to be transformed subsequently into other useful commodity chemicals. Until the recent past, most of the commercially valuable industrial chemicals were derived from fossil fuel-based resources. The growing population and industrialization lead to the continuous depletion of fossil fuels and their attributed adverse environmental impacts are a serious threat to mankind. Thus, microbial production of platform chemicals seeks significant attention in recent days due to its sustainable and renewable 124nature to overcome the dependence of petroleum-based resources. Microbial synthesis is a valuable approach that integrates enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and system biology along with process development strategies for the enhanced production of various platform chemicals and their derivatives. This chapter aims to provide an insight into the recent progress made in the synthesis of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cyclebased platform chemicals: succinic acid (SA), fumaric acid (FA), malic acid (MA), aspartic acid, glutamic acid and itaconic acid (IA) using various microbes as whole-cell biocatalyst factories. In addition, this chapter also discusses the importance of involving modern techniques used in the process development aspects.
