State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Four Program), BioProcess Engineering Research Center, BioInformatics Research Center, Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Biotechnol Adv. 2022 Oct;59:107953. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2022.107953. Epub 2022 Apr 6.
Chemical induction is one of the most common modalities used to manipulate gene expression in living systems. However, chemical induction can be toxic or expensive that compromise the economic feasibility when it comes to industrial-scale synthetic biology applications. These complications have driven the pursuit of better induction systems. Optogenetics technique can be a solution as it not only enables dynamic control with unprecedented spatiotemporal precision but also is inexpensive and eco-friendlier. The optogenetic technique harnesses natural light-sensing modules that are genetically encodable and re-programmable in various hosts. By further engineering these modules to connect with the microbial regulatory machinery, gene expression and protein activity can be finely tuned simply through light irradiation. Recent works on applying optogenetics to microbial synthetic biology have yielded remarkable achievements. To further expand the usability of optogenetics, more optogenetic tools with greater portability that are compatible with different microbial hosts need to be developed. This review focuses on non-opsin optogenetic systems and the current state of optogenetic advancements in microbes, by showcasing the different designs and functions of optogenetic tools, followed by an insight into the optogenetic approaches used to circumvent challenges in synthetic biology.
化学诱导是一种最常用的方法，用于在活系统中操纵基因表达。然而，化学诱导可能是有毒的或昂贵的，这在工业规模的合成生物学应用中会影响到经济可行性。这些复杂性促使人们寻求更好的诱导系统。光遗传学技术可以作为一种解决方案，因为它不仅可以实现具有前所未有的时空精度的动态控制，而且还便宜且对环境更友好。光遗传学技术利用天然的光感应模块，这些模块在各种宿主中可以进行基因编码和重新编程。通过进一步对这些模块进行工程设计，使其与微生物调控机制相连接，可以通过光照射来精细地调节基因表达和蛋白质活性。最近将光遗传学应用于微生物合成生物学的研究取得了显著的成果。为了进一步扩大光遗传学的可用性，需要开发更多具有更大便携性且与不同微生物宿主兼容的光遗传学工具。本综述重点介绍非视蛋白光遗传学系统以及微生物中光遗传学的最新进展，展示了光遗传学工具的不同设计和功能，然后深入探讨了用于克服合成生物学挑战的光遗传学方法。
