Synthetic microbial consortia for biosynthesis and biodegradation: promises and challenges

Functional differentiation and metabolite exchange enable microbial consortia to perform complex metabolic tasks and efficiently cycle the nutrients. Inspired by the cooperative relationships in environmental microbial consortia, synthetic microbial consortia have great promise for studying the micr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology 2019-10, Vol.46 (9-10), p.1343-1358
Main Authors: Che, Shun, Men, Yujie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry
Biodegradation
Biodegradation, Environmental
Bioinformatics
Biological activity
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biosynthesis
Biotechnology
Consortia
Contaminants
Design optimization
Environmental engineering
Genetic Engineering
Humans
Inorganic Chemistry
Life Sciences
Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology - Review
Metabolites
Microbial Consortia
Microbial Interactions
Microbiology
Microorganisms
Molecular modelling
Nutrient cycles
Nutrients
Organic chemistry
Synthetic Biology
Systems Biology
Task complexity
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Summary:Functional differentiation and metabolite exchange enable microbial consortia to perform complex metabolic tasks and efficiently cycle the nutrients. Inspired by the cooperative relationships in environmental microbial consortia, synthetic microbial consortia have great promise for studying the microbial interactions in nature and more importantly for various engineering applications. However, challenges coexist with promises, and the potential of consortium-based technologies is far from being fully harnessed. Thorough understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of microbial interactions is greatly needed for the rational design and optimization of defined consortia. These knowledge gaps could be potentially filled with the assistance of the ongoing revolution in systems biology and synthetic biology tools. As current fundamental and technical obstacles down the road being removed, we would expect new avenues with synthetic microbial consortia playing important roles in biological and environmental engineering processes such as bioproduction of desired chemicals and fuels, as well as biodegradation of persistent contaminants.
ISSN:1367-5435
1476-5535
DOI:10.1007/s10295-019-02211-4