代谢物生物传感器:微生物细胞工厂构建中的合成生物学工具

Metabolite Biosensor :A Useful Synthetic Biology Tool to Assist the Construction of Microbial Cell Factory

代谢物生物传感器作为重要的合成生物学工具,能够感应细胞内代谢物浓度的变化,转化为特定信号输出,在微生物细胞工厂的构建中显现出巨大的应用潜力。其主要组成部分通常包括生物识别元件和信号输出元件,前者来源于自然界中丰富的调控元件,如转录因子、核糖开关等,有着不同的响应机理,后者可以为荧光信号、生长优势、特定代谢通路的开闭等,取决于应用所需。着重介绍了近年来代谢物生物传感器在微生物细胞工厂构建中的应用实例,主要包括目标化合物菌株的高通量筛选、选择、胞内代谢动态调控和非遗传异质性选择,同时也着重讨论了代谢物生物传感器的性能对于应用的影响和在实际应用中可能面临的机遇与挑战。

Metabolite biosensor, which represents a useful synthetic biology tool, can sense the concentration of intracellular metabolites and then transfer it into specific signal output, showing great potential in the construction of microbial cell factory. It generally consists of two components, biological recognition element and signal output element. The former, typified by regulatory elements, is ubiquitous in nature, such as transcription factor and riboswitch, and has diverse response mechanism. The output can be fluorescence signals, fitness, pathway activation or silence, and so on. Here we reviewed recent progresses about applications of metabolite biosensor m the construction of microbial cell factory, including high-throughput screen/selection, dynamic control and non-genetic selection. We also discussed the effects of the metabolite biosensor performance in application and focused on the opportunities and challenges we might meet in practice.