Industrial microbiology synthetic biology

The incentive for industrial utilization of microorganisms is based on several favorable factors. The most important of these is that a fermentation process is very often the only feasible way to obtain a complex product, or a specific chemical transformation. Also a chemical change conducted enzymatically (via microorganisms or their enzymes) has a far lower energy barrier than by the same chemical synthetic step. This means that microbiological processes may often be carried out at easily attainable near-ambient conditions. Under milder conditions, the enzymatic processes can be 10 to 10 times as rapid as the corresponding chemical route to the same product [1]. Another feature of importance for the production of some complex biological products is that many enzymes are totally specific and stereoselective for the product of interest, unlike many chemical reactions. 

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