Scaife Mark A, Nguyen Ginnie T D T, Rico Juan, Lambert Devinn, Helliwell Katherine E, Smith Alison G
Department of Plant Science, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK.
Plant J. 2015 May;82(3):532-546. doi: 10.1111/tpj.12781. Epub 2015 Mar 8.
Microalgae constitute a diverse group of eukaryotic unicellular organisms that are of interest for pure and applied research. Owing to their natural synthesis of value-added natural products microalgae are emerging as a source of sustainable chemical compounds, proteins and metabolites, including but not limited to those that could replace compounds currently made from fossil fuels. For the model microalga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, this has prompted a period of rapid development so that this organism is poised for exploitation as an industrial biotechnology platform. The question now is how best to achieve this? Highly advanced industrial biotechnology systems using bacteria and yeasts were established in a classical metabolic engineering manner over several decades. However, the advent of advanced molecular tools and the rise of synthetic biology provide an opportunity to expedite the development of C. reinhardtii as an industrial biotechnology platform, avoiding the process of incremental improvement. In this review we describe the current status of genetic manipulation of C. reinhardtii for metabolic engineering. We then introduce several concepts that underpin synthetic biology, and show how generic parts are identified and used in a standard manner to achieve predictable outputs. Based on this we suggest that the development of C. reinhardtii as an industrial biotechnology platform can be achieved more efficiently through adoption of a synthetic biology approach.
微藻是一类多样的真核单细胞生物，在纯研究和应用研究方面都备受关注。由于微藻能天然合成有附加值的天然产物，它们正成为可持续化合物、蛋白质和代谢物的来源，这些产物包括但不限于可替代目前由化石燃料制成的化合物。对于模式微藻莱茵衣藻而言，这促使其进入了快速发展阶段，使其有望成为一个工业生物技术平台。现在的问题是如何才能最好地实现这一目标？在过去几十年里，利用细菌和酵母建立了高度先进的工业生物技术系统，采用的是经典的代谢工程方法。然而，先进分子工具的出现和合成生物学的兴起提供了一个机会，可以加快将莱茵衣藻发展成为工业生物技术平台的进程，避免逐步改进的过程。在这篇综述中，我们描述了莱茵衣藻代谢工程基因操作的现状。然后我们介绍了支撑合成生物学的几个概念，并展示了如何以标准方式识别和使用通用部件以实现可预测的输出。基于此，我们认为通过采用合成生物学方法，可以更高效地将莱茵衣藻发展成为工业生物技术平台。
