Transcription factor-based biosensors (TFBs) play an essential role in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. TFBs sense the metabolite concentration signals and convert them into specific signal output. They hold high sensitivity, strong specificity, brief analysis speed, and are widely used in response to target metabolites. Here we reviewe the principles of TFBs, the application examples, and challenges faced in recent years in microbial cells, including detecting target metabolite concentrations, high-throughput screening, adaptive laboratory evolutionary selection, and dynamic control. Simultaneously, to overcome the challenges in the application, we also focus on reviewing the performance tuning strategies of TFBs, mainly including traditional and computer-aided tuning strategies. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges that TFBs may face in practical applications, and propose the future research trend.
基于转录因子的代谢物生物传感器在代谢工程和合成生物学中发挥着重要的作用。生物传感器感应代谢物浓度信号，将其转换为特定信号输出，具有灵敏度高、特异性强、分析速度快等特点，被广泛应用于目标代谢物的响应。文中介绍了基于转录因子生物传感器的作用原理，以及近年来在微生物细胞中的应用实例和应用方面面临的挑战，主要包括目标代谢物浓度的检测、高通量筛选、自适应实验室进化选择和动态控制，同时为了克服应用中的挑战，也着重介绍了基于转录因子生物传感器的性能调节策略，主要包括传统调节和计算机辅助的调节策略，讨论了生物传感器在实际应用中可能面临的机遇与挑战，并对其发展趋势进行了展望。.
Keywords: metabolite detection; metabolite regulation; response performance; response principle; transcription factor-based biosensor.