Bioengineering for the industrial production of 2,3-butanediol by the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Owing to issues, such as the depletion of petroleum resources and price instability, the development of biorefinery related technologies that produce fuels, electric power, chemical substances, among others, from renewable resources is being actively promoted. 2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BDO) is a key compound that can be used to produce various chemical substances. In recent years, 2,3-BDO production using biological processes has attracted extensive attention for achieving a sustainable society through the production of useful compounds from renewable resources. With the development of genetic engineering, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and other research field, studies on 2,3-BDO production by the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is safe and can be fabricated using an established industrial-scale cultivation technology, have been actively conducted. In this review, we sought to describe 2,3-BDO and its derivatives; discuss 2,3-BDO production by microorganisms, in particular S. cerevisiae, whose research and development has made remarkable progress; describe a method for separating and recovering 2,3-BDO from a microbial culture medium; and propose future prospects for the industrial production of 2,3-BDO by microorganisms.