Zhang Zhidong, Guo Qi, Wang Yuetong, Huang He
College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China.
School of Food Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Mar 10;11:1105277. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1105277. eCollection 2023.
The transformation of engineered microbial cells is a pivotal link in green biomanufacturing. Its distinctive research application involves genetic modification of microbial chassis to impart targeted traits and functions for effective synthesis of the desired products. Microfluidics, as an emerging complementary solution, focuses on controlling and manipulating fluid in channels at the microscopic scale. One of its subcategories is droplet-based microfluidics (DMF), which can generate discrete droplets using immiscible multiphase fluids at kHz frequencies. To date, droplet microfluidics has been successfully applied to a variety of microbes, including bacteria, yeast, and filamentous fungi, and the detection of massive metabolites of strain products, such as polypeptides, enzymes, and lipids, has been realized. In summary, we firmly believe that droplet microfluidics has evolved into a powerful technology that will pave the way for high-throughput screening of engineered microbial strains in the green biomanufacturing industry.
工程微生物细胞的转化是绿色生物制造中的关键环节。其独特的研究应用涉及对微生物底盘进行基因改造，以赋予其靶向特性和功能，从而有效合成所需产物。微流控技术作为一种新兴的补充解决方案，专注于在微观尺度上控制和操纵通道中的流体。其一个子类别是基于液滴的微流控技术（DMF），它可以使用不混溶的多相流体以千赫兹频率产生离散液滴。迄今为止，液滴微流控技术已成功应用于多种微生物，包括细菌、酵母和丝状真菌，并且已经实现了对菌株产物的大量代谢物（如多肽、酶和脂质）的检测。总之，我们坚信液滴微流控技术已发展成为一项强大的技术，将为绿色生物制造行业中工程微生物菌株的高通量筛选铺平道路。
