Synthetic Biology Journal ›› 2020, Vol. 1 ›› Issue (1): 7-28.DOI: 10.12211/2096-8280.2020-057

• Invited Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Significant research progress in synthetic biology

Mingzhu DING, Bingzhi LI, Ying WANG, Zexiong XIE, Duo LIU, Yingjin YUAN   

  1. Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • Received:2020-04-23 Revised:2020-05-13 Online:2020-09-24 Published:2020-02-29
  • Contact: Yingjin YUAN

合成生物学重要研究方向进展

丁明珠, 李炳志, 王颖, 谢泽雄, 刘夺, 元英进   

  1. 教育部合成生物学前沿科学中心,系统生物工程教育部重点实验室,天津大学化工学院,天津 300072
  • 通讯作者: 元英进
  • 作者简介:丁明珠,女,博士,副研究员,研究方向为合成生物学,人工混菌体系设计合成。E-mail:mzding@tju.edu.cn|元英进(1963—),男,教授,博士生导师,研究方向为合成生物学及人工基因组化学合成。E-mail: yjyuan@tju.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金(21621004)

Abstract:

As an emerging, interdisciplinary field, synthetic biology has made great advances in many directions due to wide acceptance of its core principles and rapid progress in DNA synthesis. In this paper, recent development in gene circuits, genome design and synthesis, cell factories, and synthetic microbial consortia is reviewed. The complexity of artificial gene circuits that can be designed and constructed is gradually increasing with more refined control. Synthetic genomes are routinely assembled, expanding from prokaryotes (Mycoplasma to Escherichia coli) to eukaryotes (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and improved capacity in genome design promotes the research of biological evolution. Metabolic pathways of ever-increasing lengths are constructed based on modularization and orthogonality principles to produce molecules of complex structures, and fundamental rewiring of cellular metabolism is performed for enhanced robustness and compatibility. The design and construction of synthetic microbial consortia have been expanded from two-species systems to multi-species systems, so that more sophisticated functions can be achieved. At the end of this paper, new research directions resulted from the interdisciplinary integration of synthetic biology and other disciplines are discussed.

Key words: synthetic biology, gene circuit, genome design and synthesis, cell factory, synthetic microbial consortia

摘要:

合成生物学作为一个新兴的交叉学科领域,随着DNA合成技术的进步和合成生物学理念的深入,多个研究方向取得了长足发展。本文主要对基因回路、基因组设计合成、细胞工厂和人工多细胞体系的进展进行了综述。可设计构建的人工基因线路的复杂度逐步提升,人工控制更加精细;组装技术取得快速进展的同时,人工基因组的设计深度也在不断拓展,设计合成的人工基因组由支原体拓展向大肠杆菌,甚至真核生物酿酒酵母,推动了生物进化演化的研究;细胞工厂的设计构建在逐步挑战代谢途径更长、复杂程度更高的化合物的合成,模块化和正交化策略对复杂细胞工厂构建的支撑作用日益明显,鲁棒性和适配性成为细胞工厂构建需要考虑的重要问题;人工多细胞体系的设计构建已经从设计构建两菌体系向多菌体系扩展,通过多种原则进行设计,实现更加复杂的预期功能。本文也对合成生物学与其他学科交叉融合产生的一些新研究方向进行了简介。

关键词: 合成生物学, 基因回路, 基因组设计合成, 细胞工厂, 人工多细胞体系

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