形态工程在生物基化学品生产中的应用进展

Development of morphology engineering for production of bio-based chemicals

摘要:

合成生物学和代谢工程是构建微生物细胞工厂、实现化学品绿色生物制造的重要方法，目前主要集中在微生物代谢网络的改造及调控上，很少考虑到微生物细胞特性的影响。形态工程通过改造微生物细胞形态相关蛋白，有目的地对微生物细胞形态及分裂方式进行合理调控，从而优化微生物细胞的特性，是降低生物炼制成本的一种新兴生物工程技术。文中首先介绍了与微生物细胞形态相关的各类蛋白，并重点总结了形态工程在生物基化学品合成方面的应用进展，包括调控细胞体积以提高胞内产物积累量、改善细胞通透性以促进胞外产物分泌、实现高密度发酵以降低生产成本、控制产物水解程度以提高产品性能。最后，提出了形态工程面临的主要问题并展望了其未来的发展趋势。

Abstract:

Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have been widely used to construct microbial cell factories for efficient production of bio-based chemicals, which mainly focus on the modification and regulation of metabolic pathways. The characteristics of microorganisms themselves, e.g. morphology, have rarely been taken into consideration in the biotechnological production processes. Morphology engineering aims to control cell shapes and cell division patterns by manipulating the genes related to cell morphology, providing a new strategy for developing efficient microbial cell factories. This review summarized the proteins related to cell morphology, followed by illustrating a few examples of using morphology engineering strategies for improving production of bio-based chemicals. This includes increasing intracellular product accumulation by regulating cell size, enhancing extracellular secretion of target products by improving cell permeability, reducing production cost by achieving high cell density, and improving product performance by controlling the degree of product hydrolysis. Finally, challenges and perspectives for the development of morphology engineering were discussed.