Metabolic engineering is a rapidly evolving field that is being applied for the optimization of many different industrial processes. In this issue of Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, developments in different areas of metabolic engineering are reviewed. The contributions discuss the application of metabolic engineering in the improvement of yield and productivity - illustrated by amino acid production and the production of novel compounds - in the production of polyketides and extension of the substrate range - and in the engineering of S. cerevisiae for xylose metabolism, and the improvement of a complex biotransformation process.

After a Decade of Progress, an Expanded Role for Metabolic Engineering

Metabolic Engineering for L-Lysine Production by Corynebacterium glutamicum
Process Development and Metabolic Engineering for the Overproduction of Natural and Unnatural Polyketides
Metabolic Engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for Xylose Utilization
Metabolic Engineering of Indene Bioconversion in Rhodococcus sp.
Metabolic Engineering of the Morphology of Aspergillus
Evolutionary Engineering of Industrially Important Microbial Phenotypes.