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Bioproduction of riboflavin: a bright yellow history

  • Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology - Review
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is an essential nutrient for humans and animals that must be obtained from the diet. To ensure an optimal supply, riboflavin is used on a large scale as additive in the food and feed industries. Here, we describe a historical overview of the industrial process of riboflavin production starting from its discovery and the need to produce the vitamin in bulk at prices that would allow for their use in human and animal nutrition. Riboflavin was produced industrially by chemical synthesis for many decades. At present, the development of economical and eco-efficient fermentation processes, which are mainly based on Bacillus subtilis and Ashbya gossypii strains, has replaced the synthetic process at industrial scale. A detailed account is given of the development of the riboflavin overproducer strains as well as future prospects for its improvement.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by BASF SE and grant BIO2014-23901 from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Rubén M Buey was supported by a “Ramón y Cajal” contract from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. P. L.-M. was recipient of an FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. R. L.-A. was recipient of FPI predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. D. F.-D. was recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. We thank M. D. Sánchez and S. Domínguez for excellent technical help.

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  1. Metabolic Engineering Group, Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Edificio Departamental, Lab. 323. Campus Miguel de Unamuno s/n. 38007, Salamanca, Spain

    José Luis Revuelta, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Patricia Lozano-Martinez, David Díaz-Fernández, Rubén M. Buey & Alberto Jiménez

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  1. José Luis Revuelta
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  2. Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro
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Correspondence to José Luis Revuelta.

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Revuelta, J.L., Ledesma-Amaro, R., Lozano-Martinez, P. et al. Bioproduction of riboflavin: a bright yellow history. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 44, 659–665 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-016-1842-7

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