ABSTRACT

Biosynthesis ..................................................................................116 4.6 Scaling Up an Uphill Task .......................................................... 120 4.7 Engineering Plant Metabolic Pathways ....................................... 121 4.8 Phytoremediation ......................................................................... 121 4.9 Impact of New Tools .................................................................... 122 4.10 Metabolic Engineering and Process Engineering Integration .... 122 4.11 Summary .................................................................................... 123 4.12 Review Questions ...................................................................... 123 Keywords .............................................................................................. 124 References ............................................................................................. 124

4.1 INTRODUCTION TO METABOLIC ENGINEERING

Metabolic engineering is a new field with applications in the production of chemicals, fuels, materials, pharmaceuticals, and medicine at the genetic level. The field’s novelty is in the synthesis of molecular biology techniques and the tools of mathematical analysis, which allow rational

selection of targets for genetic modification through measurements and control of metabolic fluxes.