Metabolic Engineering Strategies to Convert Carbohydrates to Aviation Range Hydrocarbons

Numerous hydrocarbon molecules with properties similar to aviation fuels can be found in nature, but are often only produced at low quantities in their native hosts. This chapter summarizes recent progress in the engineering of microbial cell factories for the production of the two major molecule classes: fatty acid-derived alkanes/alkanes and isoprenoids. It starts with a brief introduction to metabolic engineering. For each of the two molecule classes, it provides information on biosynthetic pathways as well as engineering strategies to enhance their formation in the microbial hosts. While most of these endeavours are still at the proof-of concept stage, the first commercial examples are beginning to emerge