Microbial Metabolic Engineering Technology

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbial Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 1395

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Interests: Biochemistry and enzymology; Protein purification and analysis; Metal-containing proteins; Microbial physiology; Fermentation; Molecular biology; Hyperthermophiles; Biochemistry and Biophysics; Bioinformatics; Systematics and Evolution; Molecular Genetics; Renewable Energy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microbial metabolic engineering technology is at the forefront of biotechnological innovation, revolutionizing the production of valuable compounds through the manipulation of metabolic pathways in microorganisms. This cutting-edge research focuses on optimizing microbial cell factories to efficiently synthesize biofuels, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other high-value products. By employing genetic engineering techniques, such as gene knockout, overexpression, and pathway optimization, researchers aim to enhance metabolic flux towards desired products while minimizing byproduct formation. Advancements in synthetic biology, systems biology, and computational tools have enabled precise control and fine-tuning of microbial metabolism, leading to improved yields, reduced production costs, and sustainable bioprocesses.

The Special Issue will collect papers on the following research topics:

  • Multi-Omics Integration: Integration of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics data to gain a comprehensive understanding of microbial metabolism and identify key regulatory nodes for targeted engineering.
  • Synthetic Biology Tools: Development of novel synthetic biology tools, such as CRISPR-Cas systems, biosensors, and genetic circuits, for precise manipulation and control of microbial metabolic pathways.
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions: Exploration of microbial-host interactions to engineer probiotic strains with enhanced therapeutic properties or develop novel antimicrobial agents targeting specific metabolic vulnerabilities in pathogens.
  • Microbiome Engineering: Harnessing microbial communities' metabolic capabilities through microbiome engineering to optimize bioproduction processes, enhance nutrient cycling, and modulate host-microbiome interactions for health benefits.
  • Metabolic Network Modeling: Advancements in metabolic network modeling and simulation techniques to predict and optimize cellular metabolism, enabling the design of more efficient microbial cell factories for sustainable bioproduction.
  • Enzyme Engineering: Modulating microbial enzyme activities and regulatory functions using recombinant DNA technology.

We invite peer-researchers to contribute their papers to this Special Issue, exploring novel genetic tools, innovative strategies, and metabolic modeling approaches in microbial metabolic engineering technology. This collaborative effort promises a future of customized microbial platforms for diverse industrial applications.

Dr. Kesen Ma
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • metabolic engineering
  • synthetic biology tools
  • genome engineering
  • synthetic metabolic pathways
  • enzyme engineering

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 3705 KiB  
Article
Effect of TetR Family Transcriptional Regulator PccD on Phytosterol Metabolism of Mycolicibacterium
by Peiyao Xiao, Delong Pan, Fuyi Li, Yuying Liu, Yang Huang, Xiuling Zhou and Yang Zhang
Microorganisms 2024, 12(11), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12112349 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 556
Abstract
Androstenedione (AD) is an important intermediate for the production of steroidal drugs. The process of transforming phytosterols into AD by Mycolicibacterium is mainly the degradation process of the phytosterol side chain, and the excessive accumulation of propionyl-CoA produced by Mycobacterium will produce toxic [...] Read more.
Androstenedione (AD) is an important intermediate for the production of steroidal drugs. The process of transforming phytosterols into AD by Mycolicibacterium is mainly the degradation process of the phytosterol side chain, and the excessive accumulation of propionyl-CoA produced by Mycobacterium will produce toxic effects, which seriously restricts the transformation performance of strains. In this study, Mycolicibacterium sp. LZ2 (Msp) was used as the research object to study the transcription factor PccD of the TetR family, which has the role of propionyl-CoA metabolism regulation. By constructing overexpression and deletion strains of pccD, it was confirmed that pccD had an inhibitory effect on the transcription of propionyl-CoA carboxylase genes (pccA and pccB). Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA) and DNase I footprint analysis demonstrated that PccD is directly involved in the transcriptional regulation of pccA and pccB and is a negative transcriptional regulator of the pcc operon. In the study of phytosterol transformation, the growth rate and bacterial viability of Msp-ΔpccD were higher than Msp, but the growth of Msp-pccD was inhibited. As a result of testing of intracellular propionyl-CoA levels and AD production yields, it was found that lower propionyl-CoA levels and higher AD production yields were observed in Msp-ΔpccD. The results expand the cognition of propionyl-CoA metabolism regulation and provide a theoretical basis and reference for the rational transformation of phytosterol transformation strains and secondary metabolite synthesis strains with propionyl-CoA as a substrate, which has important research significance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Metabolic Engineering Technology)
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