Expression and fermentation strategies for recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli is the most applied organism for the production of recombinant gene products. The review summarizes systems and strategies which are applied, and evaluates new procedures described in the current literature which could be used for the production of recombinant proteins. The known expression systems are discussed with a special focus on alternative strategies which can be applied under process relevant conditions. The second part presents different methods to obtain high product yields at high cell densities, with a focus on the effect of the cultivation conditions for product formation. The authors consider the influence of the cultivation conditions on the cellular capacity for the production of recombinant proteins in connection to the actual knowledge of the carbon flows, the energy situation, the activity of the protein synthesis apparatus, and the stress responses. Finally, various strategies are discussed to direct the recombinant protein to different cell compartments in order to improve the product yield or the yield of active protein.