Yang Ya-Tang, Wang Chun Ying
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
Micromachines (Basel). 2016 Oct 11;7(10):185. doi: 10.3390/mi7100185.
One goal of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for cyanobacteria and microalgae is to engineer strains that can optimally produce biofuels and commodity chemicals. However, the current workflow is slow and labor intensive with respect to assembly of genetic parts and characterization of production yields because of the slow growth rates of these organisms. Here, we review recent progress in the microfluidic photobioreactors and identify opportunities and unmet needs in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Because of the unprecedented experimental resolution down to the single cell level, long-term real-time monitoring capability, and high throughput with low cost, microfluidic photobioreactor technology will be an indispensible tool to speed up the development process, advance fundamental knowledge, and realize the full potential of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for cyanobacteria and microalgae.
蓝细菌和微藻的代谢工程与合成生物学的一个目标是构建能够最佳地生产生物燃料和商品化学品的菌株。然而，由于这些生物体生长速度缓慢，当前在基因元件组装和产量表征方面的工作流程缓慢且劳动强度大。在此，我们回顾了微流控光生物反应器的最新进展，并确定了代谢工程与合成生物学中的机遇和未满足的需求。由于微流控光生物反应器技术具有前所未有的单细胞水平实验分辨率、长期实时监测能力以及低成本高通量的特点，它将成为加速开发进程、推进基础知识研究以及实现蓝细菌和微藻代谢工程与合成生物学全部潜力的不可或缺的工具。
