Zhang Wenhui, Wu Qiong
MOE Key Lab. Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Synth Syst Biotechnol. 2020 Dec;5(4):343-360. doi: 10.1016/j.synbio.2020.09.003. Epub 2020 Oct 16.
As the most abundant biological entities with incredible diversity, bacteriophages (also known as phages) have been recognized as an important source of molecular machines for the development of genetic-engineering tools. At the same time, phages are crucial for establishing and improving basic theories of molecular biology. Studies on phages provide rich sources of essential elements for synthetic circuit design as well as powerful support for the improvement of directed evolution platforms. Therefore, phages play a vital role in the development of new technologies and central scientific concepts. After the RNA world hypothesis was proposed and developed, novel biological functions of RNA continue to be discovered. RNA and its related elements are widely used in many fields such as metabolic engineering and medical diagnosis, and their versatility led to a major role of RNA in synthetic biology. Further development of RNA-based technologies will advance synthetic biological tools as well as provide verification of the RNA world hypothesis. Most synthetic biology efforts are based on reconstructing existing biological systems, understanding fundamental biological processes, and developing new technologies. RNA-based technologies derived from phages will offer abundant sources for synthetic biological components. Moreover, phages as well as RNA have high impact on biological evolution, which is pivotal for understanding the origin of life, building artificial life-forms, and precisely reprogramming biological systems. This review discusses phage-derived RNA-based technologies terms of phage components, the phage lifecycle, and interactions between phages and bacteria. The significance of RNA-based technology derived from phages for synthetic biology and for understanding the earliest stages of biological evolution will be highlighted.
作为数量最为丰富且具有令人难以置信的多样性的生物实体，噬菌体（也称为 phages）已被公认为是用于开发基因工程工具的分子机器的重要来源。同时，噬菌体对于建立和完善分子生物学的基础理论至关重要。对噬菌体的研究为合成电路设计提供了丰富的基本元素来源，并为定向进化平台的改进提供了有力支持。因此，噬菌体在新技术和核心科学概念的发展中起着至关重要的作用。在RNA世界假说被提出和发展之后，RNA的新生物功能不断被发现。RNA及其相关元件广泛应用于代谢工程和医学诊断等许多领域，其多功能性使RNA在合成生物学中发挥了重要作用。基于RNA的技术的进一步发展将推动合成生物学工具的进步，并为RNA世界假说提供验证。大多数合成生物学工作基于重建现有生物系统、理解基本生物过程以及开发新技术。源自噬菌体的基于RNA的技术将为合成生物学组件提供丰富来源。此外，噬菌体以及RNA对生物进化具有重大影响，这对于理解生命起源、构建人工生命形式以及精确重新编程生物系统至关重要。本综述从噬菌体组件、噬菌体生命周期以及噬菌体与细菌之间的相互作用等方面讨论了源自噬菌体的基于RNA的技术。将强调源自噬菌体的基于RNA的技术对合成生物学以及理解生物进化最早阶段的意义。
