Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Metab Eng. 2012 May;14(3):261-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ymben.2011.09.002. Epub 2011 Sep 18.
Cell-free synthetic biology is emerging as a powerful approach aimed to understand, harness, and expand the capabilities of natural biological systems without using intact cells. Cell-free systems bypass cell walls and remove genetic regulation to enable direct access to the inner workings of the cell. The unprecedented level of control and freedom of design, relative to in vivo systems, has inspired the rapid development of engineering foundations for cell-free systems in recent years. These efforts have led to programmed circuits, spatially organized pathways, co-activated catalytic ensembles, rational optimization of synthetic multi-enzyme pathways, and linear scalability from the micro-liter to the 100-liter scale. It is now clear that cell-free systems offer a versatile test-bed for understanding why nature's designs work the way they do and also for enabling biosynthetic routes to novel chemicals, sustainable fuels, and new classes of tunable materials. While challenges remain, the emergence of cell-free systems is poised to open the way to novel products that until now have been impractical, if not impossible, to produce by other means.
无细胞合成生物学正在兴起，成为一种强大的方法，旨在在不使用完整细胞的情况下理解、利用和扩展自然生物系统的功能。无细胞系统绕过细胞壁并去除遗传调控，从而能够直接进入细胞的内部运作。与体内系统相比，这种前所未有的控制水平和设计自由度激发了近年来无细胞系统工程基础的快速发展。这些努力导致了程序化电路、空间组织途径、共同激活的催化集合体、合成多酶途径的合理优化以及从小容量到 100 升规模的线性可扩展性。现在很明显，无细胞系统为理解自然界的设计为何以某种方式运作提供了一个多功能的试验台，也为生物合成途径生产新型化学品、可持续燃料和新型可调材料开辟了道路。虽然仍然存在挑战，但无细胞系统的出现有望为新型产品开辟道路，这些产品迄今为止，如果不是不可能的话，通过其他方式生产是不切实际的。
