Multiscale engineering of microbial cell factories: A step forward towards sustainable natural products industry

Muhammad Hammad Hussain; Muhammad Zubair Mohsin; Waqas Qamar Zaman; Junxiong Yu; Xueli Zhao; Yanlong Wei; Yingping Zhuang; Ali Mohsin; Meijin Guo

doi:10.1016/j.synbio.2021.12.012

Multiscale engineering of microbial cell factories: A step forward towards sustainable natural products industry

Synth Syst Biotechnol. 2022 Feb 1;7(1):586-601. doi: 10.1016/j.synbio.2021.12.012. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Muhammad Hammad Hussain¹, Muhammad Zubair Mohsin¹, Waqas Qamar Zaman², Junxiong Yu¹, Xueli Zhao¹, Yanlong Wei¹, Yingping Zhuang¹, Ali Mohsin¹, Meijin Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, PR China.
² Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.

Abstract

Microbial cell factories (bacteria and fungi) are the leading producers of beneficial natural products such as lycopene, carotene, herbal medicine, and biodiesel etc. These microorganisms are considered efficient due to their effective bioprocessing strategy (monoculture- and consortial-based approach) under distinct processing conditions. Meanwhile, the advancement in genetic and process optimization techniques leads to enhanced biosynthesis of natural products that are known functional ingredients with numerous applications in the food, cosmetic and medical industries. Natural consortia and monoculture thrive in nature in a small proportion, such as wastewater, food products, and soils. In similitude to natural consortia, it is possible to engineer artificial microbial consortia and program their behaviours via synthetic biology tools. Therefore, this review summarizes the optimization of genetic and physicochemical parameters of the microbial system for improved production of natural products. Also, this review presents a brief history of natural consortium and describes the functional properties of monocultures. This review focuses on synthetic biology tools that enable new approaches to design synthetic consortia; and highlights the syntropic interactions that determine the performance and stability of synthetic consortia. In particular, the effect of processing conditions and advanced genetic techniques to improve the productibility of both monoculture and consortial based systems have been greatly emphasized. In this context, possible strategies are also discussed to give an insight into microbial engineering for improved production of natural products in the future. In summary, it is concluded that the coupling of genomic modifications with optimum physicochemical factors would be promising for producing a robust microbial cell factory that shall contribute to the increased production of natural products.

Keywords: Genetic and process optimization techniques; Monoculture; Natural products; Synthetic biology tools; Synthetic consortia.

Publication types

Review