Methylotrophic Cell Factory as a Feasible Route for Production of High-Value Chemicals from Methanol

Methanol can be widely produced from natural gas, shale gas, CO2 as well as biomethane renewably generated from biomass, organic wastewater or biowastes via anaerobic fermentation. Therefore, methanol can be considered as an alternative abundant carbon resource for bioeconomy. Methanol-based biotechnologies using methanol-utilizing bacteria are thus of importance for production of various bioproducts. With the accumulation of knowledge and methodology for the well-known model strain of methanol-utilizing bacteria, such as Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 (AM1), a platform for design and application of methylotrophic cell factories (MeCFs) is attracting more and more attention. This chapter would summarize progress of the metabolic pathways and metabolic regulators of AM1 as the model of MeCFs and its potential for production of value-added chemicals.