Abstract: Fatty acids produced by oil-producing microorganisms are stored in cells as the form of triglyceride. The extraction of these fatty acids from the cells is involved in complex processing, high production cost and serious environmental pollution. Targeted regulation for the production of free fatty acids by engineered E. coli strains is becoming one of the hottest topics in current research, which will be an effective strategy for reducing energy crisis and providing high-quality and low-cost raw materials of oil. The research progress of some genes (tesA, fadD and fadL) and regulatory protein (MsbA) related to extracellular secretion of fatty acids in E. coli has been reviewed in this paper. Meanwhile, the target regulation of fatty acid metabolism by using molecular biology and metabolic engineering strategies has been proposed, with the aim of provideing a new direction for producing extracellular fatty acids.

Key words: fatty acid, metabolic regulation, transportation