Microbial oils: A customizable feedstock through metabolic engineering

In addition to animal fats and vegetable oils, microbial oils are gaining importance as a renewable feedstock for the chemical industry. One of the main advantages in the use of microorganisms to produce oils is the versatility and malleability of the microbial metabolism, which make it more easily manipulated. Thereby, the composition and properties of microbial oils can be designed through metabolic engineering. Consequently, the required chemical steps to synthesize a market product may be significantly reduced, together with the production costs. Accordingly, microorganisms have been engineered to: i) accumulate a high amount of lipids; ii) tune lipid composition; and iii) facilitate lipid extraction. Finally, microbial oils can be used as feedstock by the chemical industry to produce a huge variety of commodities, such as lubricants, polymers, fuels, coatings or surfactants. Microbial oils are considered promising alternatives to fossil fuels as feedstock for the chemical industry. Additionally they present advantages over vegetable oils and animal fats since microorganisms can be easily engineered: i) to accumulate high amount of lipids; ii) to be enriched in a desired kind of lipid; and iii) to facilitate the extraction of the oil from the cells. This short article is intended to present the concept of microbial oils to the general reader, taking into special consideration the malleability of microbial oils by metabolic engineering.