Production of Succinic Acid From Basfia succiniciproducens

Basfia succiniciproducens is a facultative anaerobic capnophilic bacterium, isolatedfrom rumen, that naturally produces high amounts of succinic acid by fixing CO2 andusing fumarate as final electron acceptor. This metabolic feature makes it one of theideal candidates for developing biotechnological industrial routes that couldeventually replace the polluting and environment unfriendly petrochemical onesthat are still main sources for the production of this value-added compound. Infact, due to the large number of applications of succinic acid that range from the moretraditional ones as food additive or pharmaceutical intermediate to the most recent asbuilding block for biopolymers and bioplastic, increasing demand and market size growthare expected in the next years. In line with a “green revolution” needed to preserve ourenvironment, the great challenge is the establishment of commercially viable productionprocesses that exploit renewable materials and in particular preferably non-foodlignocellulosic biomasses and waste products. In this review, we describe the currentlyavailable literature concerning B. succiniciproducens since the strain was first isolated,focusing on the different renewable materials and fermentation strategies used to improvesuccinic acid production titers to date. Moreover, an insight into the metabolic engineeringapproaches and the key physiological characteristics of B. succiniciproducens deducedfrom the different studies are presented.