Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering in Fungi

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi, ranging from model yeasts to diverse filamentous species, are increasingly recognized as powerful and programmable systems for synthetic biology. Their metabolic flexibility, rich biosynthetic potential, and compartmentalized, industrially resilient eukaryotic architecture provide unique advantages for engineering biological parts, synthetic transcription factors, genetic circuits, and redesigned metabolic pathways. With rapid advances in DNA and gene synthesis, CRISPR-based genome editing, regulatory-element engineering, biosensor design, and systems-level analysis, fungal platforms now enable the rational construction of complex and dynamic synthetic functions. These developments place fungi at the forefront of next-generation bioproduction, natural product discovery, and sustainable biomanufacturing. We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, which focuses on the growing opportunities and innovative strategies for engineering fungi as a versatile synthetic biology chassis.

This Special Issue aims to advance the application of synthetic biology principles—such as genetic circuit construction, regulatory rewiring, DNA and gene synthesis, metabolic pathway engineering, and synthetic transcription factor design—within fungal systems. Fully aligned with the Aims and Scope of SynBio, the Special Issue emphasizes the design, building, and optimization of biological parts, devices, and systems in both yeasts and filamentous fungi. The goal is to assemble high-quality contributions that collectively highlight cutting-edge methods, toolkits, computational approaches, and engineering frameworks that expand fungi as next-generation programmable platforms. If this number is reached, the Special Issue may also be published as a standalone e-book.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Engineering fungal promoters, regulatory elements, and synthetic transcription factors;
• CRISPR/Cas genome editing, gene optimization, and DNA/gene synthesis in fungal systems;
• Design and construction of genetic circuits and synthetic regulatory networks;
• Metabolic engineering and pathway refactoring in yeasts and filamentous fungi;
• Biosensors and designed nucleic acid systems for fungal regulation;
• Organelle engineering (e.g., mitochondria, peroxisomes) to enhance metabolic capacity;
• Omics-guided design, computational modeling, and machine-learning-based chassis optimization;
• Synthetic metagenomics and engineered multi-species fungal systems;
• Protein engineering and designed proteins to improve fungal performance.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Shengmin Zhou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. SynBio is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fungal synthetic biology
• yeast and filamentous fungi engineering
• CRISPR genome editing
• genetic circuits
• pathway refactoring
• synthetic transcription factors
• biosensors
• chassis optimization
• metabolic engineering
• systems biology