Publication Details
Abstract
Microbial contamination of industrial-scale bioprocesses, especially biofuel fermentations, has constantly posed serious threats to the production of bioproducts, causing losses in the economy, low production and instability in the process. Conventional control strategies such as antibiotics, chemical preservatives, and sterile filtration have weaknesses, i.e, cost, government regulations, customer opposition and emergence of resistant strains. Ribosomally synthesized antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria (bacteriocins) have proven to be potential, sustainable and effective biocontrol agents. This is a summary of the recent articles in the field of application of bacteriocins to protect biofuel fermentations (primarily ethanol and butanol). We delve into their range of activity, their action against typical contaminants (lactic acid bacteria, wild yeasts, clostridia), their methods of use (in-situ synthesis by starter cultures, extrinsic addition, or transgenic producer strains), and their tolerance to process conditions. We weigh up the merits, such as target specificity, biodegradability and little effect on fermentation microbiota against the problems of production expenditure, stability in multifaceted fermentation broths and government acceptance. The incorporation and fusion of bacteriocins; in particular, using metabolic engineering and combinatorial synergies, is a change paradigm to more vigorous, efficient, and sustainable industrial biotechnology.