Xie Wen-Hai, Deng Hong-Kuan, Hou Jie, Wang Li-Juan
School of Life Sciences, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 250049, China.
Institute of Biomedical Research, Shandong Provincial Research Center for Bioinformatics Engineering and Technique, Zibo Key Laboratory of New Drug Development of Neurodegenerative diseases, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, China.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2021 Jan;105(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s00253-020-10971-8. Epub 2020 Nov 17.
Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) finely control gene expression in prokaryotes and synthetic sRNA has become a useful high-throughput approach to tackle current challenges in metabolic engineering because of its many advantages compared to conventional gene knockouts. In this review, we first focus on the modular structures of sRNAs and rational design strategies of synthetic sRNAs on the basis of their modular structures. The wide applications of synthetic sRNAs in bacterial metabolic engineering, with or without the aid of heterogeneously expressed Hfq protein, were also covered. In addition, we give attention to the improvements in implementing synthetic sRNAs, which make the synthetic sRNA strategy universally applicable in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. KEY POINTS: • Synthetic sRNAs can be rationally designed based on modular structures of natural sRNAs. • Synthetic sRNAs were widely used for metabolic engineering in various microorganisms. • Several technological improvements made the synthetic sRNA strategy more applicable.
小调控RNA（sRNAs）精细地控制原核生物中的基因表达，由于与传统基因敲除相比具有诸多优势，合成sRNA已成为应对代谢工程当前挑战的一种有用的高通量方法。在本综述中，我们首先关注sRNAs的模块化结构以及基于其模块化结构的合成sRNAs的合理设计策略。还涵盖了合成sRNAs在细菌代谢工程中的广泛应用，无论是否借助异源表达的Hfq蛋白。此外，我们关注了实施合成sRNAs方面的改进，这些改进使合成sRNA策略在代谢工程和合成生物学中普遍适用。要点：• 合成sRNAs可基于天然sRNAs的模块化结构进行合理设计。• 合成sRNAs被广泛用于各种微生物的代谢工程。• 多项技术改进使合成sRNA策略更具适用性。
