Metabolic and morphogenetic engineering of Bacillus subtilis: biotechnology for industry

Abstract

The bacterium Bacillus subtilis plays a major role as model for Gram-positive research, and is widely used as industrial workhorse for the production of high-value enzymes and metabolites. Successful development of commercially-attractive strains and of original products is the key of innovation in microbial industry. Evolving a natural B. subtilis strain into an overproducer involves genetic engineering. In spite of a wide range of genetic tools and techniques available for B. subtilis, engineering of the metabolic pathways, with the purpose to reach industrially significant amount of products, requires a deep and specific understanding of the metabolism.(...)