Biological Systems Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, 304 Seitz Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2013;131:89-119. doi: 10.1007/10_2012_159.
Although cell-free biosystems have been used as a tool for investigating fundamental aspects of biological systems for more than 100 years, they are becoming an emerging biomanufacturing platform in the production of low-value biocommodities (e.g., H(2), ethanol, and isobutanol), fine chemicals, and high-value protein and carbohydrate drugs and their precursors. Here we would like to define the cell-free biosystems containing more than three catalytic components in a single reaction vessel, which although different from one-, two-, or three-enzyme biocatalysis can be regarded as a straightforward extension of multienzymatic biocatalysis. In this chapter, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of cell-free biosystems versus living organisms, briefly review the history of cell-free biosystems, highlight a few examples, analyze any remaining obstacles to the scale-up of cell-free biosystems, and suggest potential solutions. Cell-free biosystems could become a disruptive technology to microbial fermentation, especially in the production of high-impact low-value biocommodities mainly due to the very high product yields and potentially low production costs.
虽然无细胞生物系统作为一种研究生物系统基本方面的工具已经使用了 100 多年，但它们正在成为生产低价值生物商品（如 H（2）、乙醇和异丁醇）、精细化学品以及高价值蛋白质和碳水化合物药物及其前体的新兴生物制造平台。在这里，我们希望定义在单个反应容器中包含三个以上催化成分的无细胞生物系统，尽管与单酶、双酶或三酶生物催化不同，但可以将其视为多酶生物催化的直接扩展。在本章中，我们将比较无细胞生物系统与生物体的优缺点，简要回顾无细胞生物系统的历史，重点介绍一些示例，分析无细胞生物系统放大的剩余障碍，并提出潜在的解决方案。无细胞生物系统可能成为微生物发酵的颠覆性技术，特别是在生产高影响力的低价值生物商品方面，主要是因为产品产率非常高，生产成本可能较低。
