Microbial production of butyl butyrate: from single strain to cognate consortium

Butyl butyrate (BB) is an important chemical with versatile applications in beverage, food and cosmetics industries. Since chemical synthesis of BB may cause adverse impacts on the environment, biotechnology is an emerging alternative approach for microbial esters biosynthesis. BB can be synthesized by using a single Clostridium strain natively producing butanol or butyrate, with exogenously supplemented butyrate or butanol, in the presence of lipase. Recently, E. coli strains have been engineered to produce BB, but the titer and yield remained very low. This review highlighted a new trend of developing cognate microbial consortium for BB production and associated challenges, and end up with new prospects for further improvement for microbial BB biosynthesis.