全局转录调控及其在代谢工程中的应用

全局转录调控是一种全新的改进细胞表型的定向进化方法,通过error-prone PCR、DNA shuffling等技术对细胞中的σ因子和其他转录元件进行多轮突变修饰,改变RNA聚合酶的转录效率和对启动子的亲和能力,使细胞的转录在整体水平上发生改变,导致许多由多种基因控制的细胞表型得以改进。全局转录调控可以对代谢途径快速优化,在代谢工程中已被成功地应用于各种代谢产物的生物合成中。随着全局转录调控理论的不断完善,其应用前景也将越来越广阔。     

系统代谢工程在微生物定向进化中的应用

系统生物学的迅速发展使人们能够从整体水平上理解细胞的生理生化特性并调控其代谢.系统代谢工程的主要应用之一是以系统生物学为基础对微生物进行定向进化,以期增强细胞对环境胁迫的耐受性,提高目标产品的产量.前者多采用全局转录机制工程和逆代谢工程的方法;后者主要通过设计并导入最优化路径,重构代谢网络及基因的模拟敲除和湿法验证等策略实现.本文综述了利用系统代谢工程解决细胞生物工程几个主要问题的技术及其应用进展.     

微生物代谢工程原理与应用

代谢工程是利用分子生物学原理系统分析细胞代谢网络,并通过DNA重组技术和应用分析生物学相关的遗传学手段对细胞进行有精确目标的基因操作,改变微生物原有的代谢或调节系统,实现目的产物代谢活性的提高。代谢工程综合了生物化学、化学工程、数学分析等多学科内容,是当前国内外学者研究热点之一。论述了微生物代谢工程的理论基础及其应用进展和前景。     

启动子和细胞全局转录机制的定向进化在微生物代谢工程中的应用

通过随机突变和定向选择而进行的定向进化(又称分子进化或人工进化)在改造酶的催化特性和稳定性、扩展酶的底物范围等方面具有广泛的应用。近年来,定向进化也开始应用在对结构基因的启动子区域和具有调节功能的蛋白如转录因子等进行代谢工程改造,并成功选育了对环境胁迫因素具有较强耐受性,以及发酵效率提高的微生物菌种。以下着重介绍近年来启动子的定向进化,包括启动子的强度和调节功能的分子进化,以及细胞全局转录工程等技术在微生物代谢工程中的应用,这些定向进化技术使人们可以更精细地调节基因表达水平,并可同时改变细胞内多个基因的转录水平,是代谢工程研究新的有力工具。     

后基因组时代的丝状真菌基因组学与代谢工程

丝状真菌不仅是传统发酵工业中抗生素、酶制剂和有机酸的主要生产者,而且也是代谢工程育种中异源蛋白表达的重要细胞工厂。丝状真菌的遗传修饰和代谢工程研究是现代工业生物技术领域最具活力的研究方向之一。特别是与细菌和酵母相比,丝状真菌在细胞生长、营养需求、环境适应性、翻译后修饰、蛋白分泌能力和生物安全性等方面具有显著的优势。文章综述了丝状真菌作为异源蛋白表达系统在基因组学技术研究和代谢工程研究方面的最新进展。作者在分析丝状真菌基因组结构、特点的基础上,阐述了比较基因组学、蛋白质组学、转录组学和代谢组学等对丝状真菌的代谢途径重构、新型蛋白挖掘和代谢工程育种中的作用和意义。另一方面,作者分析了丝状真菌在表达外源蛋白时遇到的瓶颈问题,总结了丝状真菌代谢工程育种中的常用策略包括异源基因的融合表达、反义核酸技术、蛋白分泌途径改造、密码子优化和蛋白酶缺陷宿主的选育等技术和手段。最后,对该领域的发展趋势进行了展望。     

基因组尺度分析和代谢工程策略

代谢工程是近年来发展起来的新技术,随着各种组学技术的发展,高通量数据整合方法用于分析细胞的代谢网络,改造代谢途径,以提高目标产物的产量。本文就代谢工程的发展状况,基因组尺度的分析技术,以及代谢工程策略进行了综述。分析了生物信息学和系统生物学方法在代谢途径构建和代谢网络分析中的作用,并就存在的问题和可能的解决途径进行了阐述。     

代谢组及其在真菌研究中的应用

代谢组学是利用现代分析化学手段对一定条件下生物体内小分子代谢产物（初级和次级代谢产物）定性及定量,从而揭示生命现象及其内在规律的学科。相对于基因组、转录组和蛋白质组,代谢组是一定条件下生物学过程完成后的最终代谢产物的集合,因而是各种组学研究中最接近表型的一种组学,可以直接动态地反映出细胞的生理生化过程,从而有效地检测和发现特定的生化途径,准确地解释生理或者病理现象。代谢组学作为系统生物学中基因组学、转录组学以及蛋白质组学三大组学的延伸和补充,是目前的研究热点之一。目前代谢组学在真菌领域的研究得到日益重视和发展。本文首先从历史发展和技术路线简述了代谢组学的发展历程和常见的代谢组学研究方法。接着从真菌的分类鉴定、生物膜研究、代谢途径、代谢工程、天然产物发现与植物互作这6个方面介绍了代谢组学在真菌研究领域的应用。     

代谢流量比率分析及其在代谢工程中的应用

细胞内代谢反应流量在系统理解细胞代谢特性和指导代谢工程改造等方面都起着重要的作用。由于代谢流量难以直接测量得到,在很多情况下通过跟踪稳定同位素在代谢网络中的转移并进行相应的模型计算能有效地定量代谢流量。代谢流量比率分析法能够高度体现系统的生物化学真实性、辨别细胞代谢网络的拓扑结构,并且能够相对简单快速地定量反应速率等,因此受到代谢工程研究者越来越多的重视。以下着重介绍并讨论了利用代谢物同位体分布信息分析关键代谢节点合成途径的流量比率、基于流量比率的代谢流量解析、以及应用于代谢工程等的相关原理、实验测量、数据分析、使用条件等,以期充分发挥代谢流量比率分析法的优势,并将其拓展推广至更多细胞体系的代谢特性阐明和代谢工程改造中去。     

历久弥新：进化中的代谢工程

20世纪90年代,Bailey及Stephanopoulos等提出了经典代谢工程的理念,旨在利用DNA重组技术对代谢网络进行改造,以达到细胞性能改善,目标产物增加的目的。自代谢工程诞生以来的30年,生命科学蓬勃发展,基因组学、系统生物学、合成生物学等新学科不断涌现,为代谢工程的发展注入了新的内涵与活力。经典代谢工程研究已进入到前所未有的系统代谢工程阶段。组学技术、基因组代谢模型、元件组装、回路设计、动态控制、基因组编辑等合成生物学工具与策略的应用,大大提升了复杂代谢的设计与合成能力;机器学习的介入以及进化工程与代谢工程的结合,为系统代谢工程的未来开辟了新的方向。文中对过去30年代谢工程的发展趋势作了梳理,介绍了代谢工程在发展中不断创新的理论与方法及其应用。     

合成生物学与代谢工程

随着DNA重组技术的日趋成熟,代谢工程的理论和应用已经得到了迅速发展。合成生物学是近年来蓬勃发展的一门新兴学科,在许多领域都具有重要的应用。以下从改造细胞代谢的关键因子、代谢途径的调节和宿主细胞与代谢途径构建的关系等方面详细讨论了合成生物学的最新进展和合成生物学在代谢工程领域的应用。     

Metabolic flux analysis and metabolic engineering of microorganisms

Recent advances in metabolic flux analysis including genome-scale constraints-based flux analysis and its applications in metabolic engineering are reviewed. Various computational aspects of constraints-based flux analysis including genome-scale stoichiometric models, additional constraints used for the improved accuracy, and several algorithms for identifying the target genes to be manipulated are described. Also, some of the successful applications of metabolic flux analysis in metabolic engineering are reviewed. Finally, we discuss the limitations that need to be overcome to make the results of genome-scale flux analysis more realistically represent the real cell metabolism.     

Flux analysis and metabolomics for systematic metabolic engineering of microorganisms

Rational engineering of metabolism is important for bio-production using microorganisms. Metabolic design based on in silico simulations and experimental validation of the metabolic state in the engineered strain helps in accomplishing systematic metabolic engineering. Flux balance analysis (FBA) is a method for the prediction of metabolic phenotype, and many applications have been developed using FBA to design metabolic networks. Elementary mode analysis (EMA) and ensemble modeling techniques are also useful tools for in silico strain design. The metabolome and flux distribution of the metabolic pathways enable us to evaluate the metabolic state and provide useful clues to improve target productivity. Here, we reviewed several computational applications for metabolic engineering by using genome-scale metabolic models of microorganisms. We also discussed the recent progress made in the field of metabolomics and ¹³C-metabolic flux analysis techniques, and reviewed these applications pertaining to bio-production development. Because these in silico or experimental approaches have their respective advantages and disadvantages, the combined usage of these methods is complementary and effective for metabolic engineering.     

Metabolic cartography: experimental quantification of metabolic fluxes from isotopic labelling studies

For the past decade, flux maps have provided researchers with an in-depth perspective on plant metabolism. As a rapidly developing field, significant headway has been made recently in computation, experimentation, and overall understanding of metabolic flux analysis. These advances are particularly applicable to the study of plant metabolism. New dynamic computational methods such as non-stationary metabolic flux analysis are finding their place in the toolbox of metabolic engineering, allowing more organisms to be studied and decreasing the time necessary for experimentation, thereby opening new avenues by which to explore the vast diversity of plant metabolism. Also, improved methods of metabolite detection and measurement have been developed, enabling increasingly greater resolution of flux measurements and the analysis of a greater number of the multitude of plant metabolic pathways. Methods to deconvolute organelle-specific metabolism are employed with increasing effectiveness, elucidating the compartmental specificity inherent in plant metabolism. Advances in metabolite measurements have also enabled new types of experiments, such as the calculation of metabolic fluxes based on (13)CO(2) dynamic labelling data, and will continue to direct plant metabolic engineering. Newly calculated metabolic flux maps reveal surprising and useful information about plant metabolism, guiding future genetic engineering of crops to higher yields. Due to the significant level of complexity in plants, these methods in combination with other systems biology measurements are necessary to guide plant metabolic engineering in the future.     

Progress and perspective on cyanobacterial glycogen metabolism engineering

As important oxygenic photoautotrophs, cyanobacteria are also generally considered as one of the most promising microbial chassis for photosynthetic biomanufacturing. Diverse synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches have been developed to enable the efficient harnessing of carbon and energy flow toward the synthesis of desired metabolites in cyanobacterial cell factories. Glycogen metabolism works as the most important natural carbon sink mechanism and reserve carbon source, storing a large portion of carbon and energy from the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle, and thus is traditionally recognized as a promising engineering target to optimize the efficacy of cyanobacterial cell factories. Multiple strategies and approaches have been designed and adopted to engineer glycogen metabolism in cyanobacteria, leading to the successful regulation of glycogen synthesis and storage contents in cyanobacteria cells. However, disturbed glycogen metabolism results in weakened cellular physiological functionalities, thereby diminishing the robustness of metabolism. In addition, the effects of glycogen removal as a metabolic engineering strategy to enhance photosynthetic biosynthesis are still controversial. This review focuses on the efforts and effects of glycogen metabolism engineering on the physiology and metabolism of cyanobacterial chassis strains and cell factories. The perspectives and prospects provided herein are expected to inspire novel strategies and tools to achieve ideal control over carbon and energy flow for biomanufacturing.     

酿酒酵母转化木糖生产化学品的研究进展

木糖的有效利用是木质纤维素生产生物燃料或化学品经济性转化的基础。30年来,通过理性代谢改造和适应性进化等工程策略,显著提高了传统乙醇发酵微生物——酿酒酵母Saccharomyces cerevisiae的木糖代谢能力。因此,近年来在酿酒酵母中利用木糖生产化学品的研究逐步展开。研究发现,酿酒酵母分别以木糖和葡萄糖为碳源时,其转录组和代谢组存在明显差异。与葡萄糖相比,木糖代谢过程中细胞整体呈现出Crabtree-negative代谢特征,如有限的糖酵解途径活性减少了丙酮酸到乙醇的代谢通量,以及增强的胞质乙酰辅酶A合成和呼吸能量代谢等,这都有利于以丙酮酸或乙酰辅酶A为前体的下游产物的有效合成。文中对酿酒酵母木糖代谢途径改造与优化、木糖代谢特征以及以木糖为碳源合成化学品的细胞工厂构建等方面进行了详细综述,并对木糖作为重要碳源在大宗化学品生物合成中存在的困难和挑战以及未来研究方向进行了总结与展望。     

Comparing methods for metabolic network analysis and an application to metabolic engineering

Bioinformatics tools have facilitated the reconstruction and analysis of cellular metabolism of various organisms based on information encoded in their genomes. Characterization of cellular metabolism is useful to understand the phenotypic capabilities of these organisms. It has been done quantitatively through the analysis of pathway operations. There are several in silico approaches for analyzing metabolic networks, including structural and stoichiometric analysis, metabolic flux analysis, metabolic control analysis, and several kinetic modeling based analyses. They can serve as a virtual laboratory to give insights into basic principles of cellular functions. This article summarizes the progress and advances in software and algorithm development for metabolic network analysis, along with their applications relevant to cellular physiology, and metabolic engineering with an emphasis on microbial strain optimization. Moreover, it provides a detailed comparative analysis of existing approaches under different categories.     

Physiology of microbial cells and metabolic engineering

This review is devoted to the problems of the physiology and cell biology of microorganisms in relation to metabolic engineering. The latter is considered as a branch of fundamental and applied biotechnology aimed at controlling microbial metabolism by methods of genetic engineering and classical genetics and based on intimate knowledge of cell metabolism. Attention is also given to the problems associated with the metabolic limitation of microbial biosyntheses, analysis and control of metabolic fluxes, rigidity of metabolic pathways, the role of pleiotropic (global) regulatory systems in the control of metabolic fluxes, and prospects of physiological and evolutionary approaches in metabolic engineering.