Fermentation inhibitors are toxic to cells, which is one of the bottlenecks for lignocellulose bio-refinery process. How to remove those inhibitors serves a key role in the bioconversion of lignocellulose. This article reviews the sources and the types of the inhibitors, especially the updated removal strategies including physical methods, chemical methods, biological methods and inhibitor-tolerant strain construction strategies. Based on these, we introduce a new bio-refinery model named "fractional conversion", which reduces the production of inhibitors at pretreatment stage, and a novel in situ detoxification method named "fermentation promoter exploitation technology". This review could provide new research ideas on the removal of fermentation inhibitors.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Biotransformation ; Fermentation ; Lignin ; chemistry

The background for developing metabolic engineering was reviewed, followed by a discussion on analyzing the driving force for developing metabolic engineering. Twelve papers published in this special section were briefly introduced with the aim to stimulate further developments in this fast evolving field.
Biotechnology ; trends ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Metabolism

Nanobiomaterial is a multidisciplinary scientific field with roots in life science, material science and nanotechnology. The basic and application researches of nanobiomaterials have been the hot topic in the materials research for biomedicine and biotechnology, which have developed quickly in biomedical implant and intervention medicine, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and drug/gene delivery system. This review focuses on the potential of nanobiomaterials including biocompatible surface, tissue engineering and regenerative materials, new drug/gene delivery system and bioanalysis system, with an attempt to explore their possible applications in clinical practice.
Biocompatible Materials ; Biotechnology ; methods ; trends ; Nanostructures ; Nanotechnology ; methods ; trends

Genome editing is defined as highly-effective and precise modification of cellular genome in a large scale. In recent years, such genome-editing methods have been rapidly developed in the field of industrial strain improvement. The quickly-updating methods thoroughly change the old mode of inefficient genetic modification, which is "one modification, one selection marker, and one target site". Highly-effective modification mode in genome editing have been developed including simultaneous modification of multiplex genes, highly-effective insertion, replacement, and deletion of target genes in the genome scale, cut-paste of a large DNA fragment. These new tools for microbial genome editing will certainly be applied widely, and increase the efficiency of industrial strain improvement, and promote the revolution of traditional fermentation industry and rapid development of novel industrial biotechnology like production of biofuel and biomaterial. The technological principle of these genome-editing methods and their applications were summarized in this review, which can benefit engineering and construction of industrial microorganism.
Biotechnology ; Fermentation ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Genome, Microbial ; Industrial Microbiology

Components separation is the key technology in biorefinery. Combination of steam explosion and laccase was used, and synergistic effect of the combined pretreatment was evaluated in terms of physical structure, chemical components and extraction of lignin. The results showed that steam explosion can destroy the rigid structure and increase the specific surface area of straw, which facilitated the laccase pretreatment. The laccase pretreatment can modify the lignin structure based on the Fourier transform infrared test, as a result the delignification of straw was enhanced. Nuclei Growth model with a time dependent rate constant can describe the delignification, and the kinetics parameters indicated that the combined pretreatment improved the reaction sites and made the delignification reaction more sensitive to temperature. The combined pretreatment enhanced delignification, and can be a promising technology as an alternative to the existing pretreatment.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Laccase ; chemistry ; Lignin ; chemistry ; Plant Stems ; chemistry ; Steam

Biorefinery that utilizes renewable biomass for production of fuels, chemicals and bio-materials has become more and more important in chemical industry. Recently, steam explosion technology, acid and alkali treatment are the main biorefinery treatment technologies. Meanwhile, low temperature plasma technology has attracted extensive attention in biomass refining process due to its unique chemical activity and high energy. We systemically summarize the research progress of low temperature plasma technology for pretreatment, sugar platflow, selective modification, liquefaction and gasification in biomass refinery. Moreover, the mechanism of low temperature plasma in biorefinery and its further development were also discussed.
Biomass ; Biotechnology ; methods ; Biotransformation ; Chemical Industry ; Cold Temperature ; Plasma Gases

Composition of culture medium for mass production of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae was optimized using a response surface methodology (RSM). Initially, the influence of glucose, thallium acetate, fresh yeast extract, horse serum, and porcine serum on the production of mycoplasmal protein was assessed using a 'one factor at a time' technique. Next, factors with a significant effect, including fresh yeast extract, and horse and porcine sera, were selected for further optimization using a central composite design (CCD) of RSM. The experimental results were fitted into a second order polynomial model equation. Estimated optimal condition of the factors for maximum production of mycoplasmal protein (i.e., triple-fold increase from 0.8 mg/L produced by basal mycoplasma media to 2.5 mg/L) was 10.9% fresh yeast extract, 15% horse serum, and 31.5% porcine serum (v/v). For the optimized conditions, a 2.96 mg/L experimental result was observed, similar to the estimated optimal conditions result of the CCD.
Biotechnology/*methods ; Culture Media/*chemistry ; Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae/*growth & development

Gene knockout, an important technology in molecular biology, has been broadly applied in industrial microbial metabolic engineering. From the basic mechanism of DNA recombination, we summarized and compared in this review different gene knockout strategies. Three most hot and important approaches, including the lambda Red recombination system using the linear dsDNA as recombination substrate, the single or double crossover homologous recombination using the circular plasmid DNA as substrate, and the transposase mediated transposition recombination, were summarized in detail. Developing frontiers and application prospects of gene knockout were further discussed.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Gene Knockout Techniques ; methods ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Metabolic Engineering ; methods ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways

Omics technologies have profoundly promoted development and applications of metabolic engineering by analysis of cell metabolism at a system level. Whole genome transcription profiles have provided researchers more rigorous evaluation of cell phenotype and an increased understanding of cellular metabolism. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis can conduce to identification of effective gene targets for strain improvement, and consequently accelerates rational design and construction of microbial cell factories for desired product. In this review, we briefly introduced the principle of three main platforms of transcriptome, and reviewed the recent applications of the transcriptome to metabolic engineering, finally provided conclusions and future prospects.
Biotechnology ; methods ; Genomics ; methods ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Metabolic Engineering ; methods ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways ; Transcriptome

The background and the importance of developing industrial biotechnology were illustrated, followed by a brief analysis on the driving effect of genomics and functional genomics. Seventeen papers covering metabolic engineering, fermentation engineering, industrial enzymes and biocatalysis are published in this special issue. These papers were briefly introduced to show the most recent developments of industrial biotechnology.
Biocatalysis ; Bioelectric Energy Sources ; Biotechnology ; methods ; trends ; Genetic Engineering ; methods ; Genomics ; methods ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods