Microbial Production of C2-C5 Diols

Diols are a category of important value-added chemicals, widely used in solvents, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and polymer industry. Production of diols via biological processes is highly important for a sustainable chemical industry. The recent development of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology has achieved great success in constructing microbial strains for the production of diols. In this chapter, the recent development of microbial processes for the production of C2-C5 diols was summarized. Especially, the new pathways and metabolic engineering strategies for the production of ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-butanediol, 1,5-pentanediol, and 1,3-pentanediol were systematically described. The challenges and prospects for developing biological processes for commercial applications were also provided.