Synthetic biology 2020–2030: six commercially-available products that are changing our world

Voigt, Christopher A.

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20122-2

Cited by 197 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 83 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

120

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In an application for the electronics industry, Zymergen developed a process for producing diamine monomers from engineered organisms that have been generated by a suite of robotics to build millions of strains in parallel, with AI learning from failures to design the next round of strains. The diamines are further processed to hyaline, a polyimide film for use in flexible electronics such as foldable smartphones [ 48 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Produced styrene was subsequently polymerized to polystyrene by free radical synthesis. [ 47 ] Di-amines Microbial engineering to produce di-amines for the synthesis of hyaline for use in the electronics industry [ 48 ] Glutaric acid Metabolic engineering of an l -lysine–overproducing C. glutamicum strain [ 49 ] …”

Section: Engineering Cells To Synthesize (Precursors Of) Non-living Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Burgos-Morales

Gueye

Lacombe

et al. 2021

Materials Today Bio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Materials in nature have fascinating properties that serve as a continuous source of inspiration for materials scientists. Accordingly, bio-mimetic and bio-inspired approaches have yielded remarkable structural and functional materials for a plethora of applications. Despite these advances, many properties of natural materials remain challenging or yet impossible to incorporate into synthetic materials. Natural materials are produced by living cells, which sense and process environmental cues and conditions by means of signaling and genetic programs, thereby controlling the biosynthesis, remodeling, functionalization, or degradation of the natural material. In this context, synthetic biology offers unique opportunities in materials sciences by providing direct access to the rational engineering of how a cell senses and processes environmental information and translates them into the properties and functions of materials. Here, we identify and review two main directions by which synthetic biology can be harnessed to provide new impulses for the biologization of the materials sciences: first, the engineering of cells to produce precursors for the subsequent synthesis of materials. This includes materials that are otherwise produced from petrochemical resources, but also materials where the bio-produced substances contribute unique properties and functions not existing in traditional materials. Second, engineered living materials that are formed or assembled by cells or in which cells contribute specific functions while remaining an integral part of the living composite material. We finally provide a perspective of future scientific directions of this promising area of research and discuss science policy that would be required to support research and development in this field.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Engineering Cells To Synthesize (Precursors Of) Non-living Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Burgos-Morales

Gueye

Lacombe

et al. 2021

Materials Today Bio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Accelerating strain optimization using growth-coupled design While entering its third decade of life as an applied discipline 26 , synthetic biology claims an evident contribution to biomanufacturing 27,28 . The current SynBio paradigm for rational strain engineering is defined by the "design-build-test-learn" (DBTL) cycle 7 .…”

Section: Synthetic Metabolism: Modularity Meets Growth-coupled Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth-coupled selection of synthetic modules to accelerate cell factory development

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Synthetic biology has brought about a conceptual shift in our ability to redesign microbial metabolic networks. Combining metabolic pathway-modularization with growth-coupled selection schemes is a powerful tool that enables deep rewiring of the cell factories' biochemistry for rational bioproduction.The field of metabolic engineering has entered the next level of maturity, shifting from looking at metabolism as a rigid structure to a rather flexible and versatile network. Recently, several groundbreaking studies focused on central assimilation pathways have demonstrated an unprecedented level of control over core metabolic networks. Examples of this sort aimed at establishing alternative assimilation pathways in microbial workhorses, e.g., implementing the autocatalytic Calvin-Benson-Bassham and ribulose monophosphate cycles in Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris 1-3 . Their realization required the steady-state maintenance of appropriate concentrations of intermediate metabolites to allow for the activity of these non-native metabolic routes 4 . Moreover, an equally important rewiring of central metabolism in E. coli led to a nonoxidative glycolysis 5 . The resulting strain could catabolize one glucose equivalent to three acetyl-CoA molecules, instead of the two obtained via the canonical glycolysis. Non-traditional hosts can now also be engineered by harnessing the enabling tools of synthetic biology, as illustrated by the implementation of a linear glycolysis in the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida, which fully replaces the native Entner-Doudoroff catabolism 6 . The combination of rational engineering and adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) has been crucial to achieve these deep metabolic reconfigurations. The success of such studies shows a surprising degree of metabolic plasticity, even in core routes, which challenges the established textbook knowledge describing central metabolism as a static network.The degree of control we can now exert over metabolic networks can be exploited for designing next-generation cell factories. The societal impact of industrial biotechnology depends significantly on our ability to "teach" microbial hosts how to efficiently convert a substrate into a product of interest. TRY values, i.e., titers (mmol product • L −1 or g product • L −1 ), rates (g product • g CDW −1 • h −1 or g product • L −1 • h −1 ), and yields (g product • g substrate −1 or g product • g CDW −1 ), are the benchmarks of product formation efficiency 7 . One way to increase TRYs is engineering microbial metabolism to funnel carbon flow into the target bioproduction pathways. Traditional metabolic engineering strategies for improving production pathway capacities include overexpression of required pathway enzymes for a desired product and knockout of enzymes competing for metabolites with the production pathway. These genetic engineering interventions

show abstract

“…As S. cerevisiae is GRAS, the S. cerevisiae biomass might be directly used as prebiotics for poultry or other animals without further bioprocess. In the future, the synthetic biology will help introduce the redesigned LBP biosynthetic pathway in yeast and lead to the high-level production of LBP in the future [ 68 ].…”

Section: Engineering Strategies For High-level Lbp Production In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Yeast Synthetic Biology for the Production of Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides

Peng

Wang

et al. 2021

Molecules

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fruit of Lycium barbarum L. (goji berry) is used as traditional Chinese medicine, and has the functions of immune regulation, anti-tumor, neuroprotection, anti-diabetes, and anti-fatigue. One of the main bioactive components is L. barbarum polysaccharide (LBP). Nowadays, LBP is widely used in the health market, and it is extracted from the fruit of L. barbarum. The planting of L. barbarum needs large amounts of fields, and it takes one year to harvest the goji berry. The efficiency of natural LBP production is low, and the LBP quality is not the same at different places. Goji berry-derived LBP cannot satisfy the growing market demands. Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for the biosynthesis of some plant natural products. Recovery of LBP biosynthetic pathway in L. barbarum and expression of them in engineered S. cerevisiae might lead to the yeast LBP production. However, information on LBP biosynthetic pathways and the related key enzymes of L. barbarum is still limited. In this review, we summarized current studies about LBP biosynthetic pathway and proposed the strategies to recover key enzymes for LBP biosynthesis. Moreover, the potential application of synthetic biology strategies to produce LBP using engineered S. cerevisiae was discussed.

show abstract

Synthetic biology 2020–2030: six commercially-available products that are changing our world

Cited by 197 publications

References 83 publications

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Synthetic biology as driver for the biologization of materials sciences

Growth-coupled selection of synthetic modules to accelerate cell factory development

Yeast Synthetic Biology for the Production of Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About