Year effect amino acid levels

Corynebacterium actively excretes amino acids through its cell wall membrane and does not degrade L-lysine due to the lack of lysine-decarboxylase. For 60 years all these characteristics have made this microbe the species of choice in L-lysine production. In addition it demonstrates the potential of natural biosynthesis pathways for commercial purposes. In contrast Escherichia coli entered the field of industrial amino acid fermentation not because of comparable advantages provided by nature but because of the availability of effective tools for genetic engineering. In the early 1980s such methods were state of the art for Escherichia coli but were only on an infant level for Corynebacterium. Developing industrial strains based on Escherichia coli, which at that time was not broadly covered by intellectual property (IP), provided room to build new IP in the field of amino acid fermentation. 

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