Abstract:

The extensive consumption of fossil oil and the rapid accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions have caused long-term changes in the global climate and environment, sparking widespread interest in society for CO₂ bioconversion technologies as a means to address energy transition and climate change. As a new-generation biorefinery platform based on synthetic biology, the synthetic phototrophic community comprises closely cooperating phototrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms. This community is capable of efficiently converting light energy directly into biomass and a variety of chemicals through mutualistic metabolic division of labor among community members. Synthetic phototrophic community is one of the potential ways to achieve sustainable carbon-negative biomanufacturing, and has attracted widespread attention attributed to its advantages in applicability and robustness. In recent years, with the rapid development of systems biology and synthetic biotechnology, a variety of research efforts have been applied to the design and optimization of synthetic phototrophic communities, achieving stable progress and promoting the understanding of phototrophic community production. In this review, we briefly introduced an overview of the advances and current status of synthetic phototrophic community, including mutualistic mechanisms related to element, energy, and information flow. Subsequently, the unique advantages of phototrophic community were outlined. Meanwhile, recent systems biology approaches of phototrophic community were summarized, such as integrative analysis of multi-omics data, genome-scale metabolic modelling, flux balance analysis and community performance predictive algorithms. We also focused on the design and optimization strategies, such as chassis upgrading, immobilization/compartmentalization techniques, and enhanced internal multilayer regulation of synthetic phototrophic community, as well as the progress of their applications in various fields. Furthermore, we analyzed and discussed the constraints and challenges for the further deployment of synthetic phototrophic community on a larger scale, ranging from photosynthetic carbon production rate, intermediate organic matter selection, external predator invasion, to light distribution under high density cultivation. Finally, the future research strategies and engineering directions of synthetic phototrophic community encompassing semiconductor biohybrids, fine regulation of interspecies interaction and multi-omics community model construction were proposed. We conclude by providing a perspective on the future application scenarios of synthetic phototrophic communities in biochemistry, biomedicine, bioremediation and bioagriculture.

Key words: synthetic biology, phototrophic communities, carbon-negative biosynthesis, CO₂ utilization, systems biology, quorum sensing

摘要：

CO₂生物转化技术的开发为解决能源转型和气候变化问题提供了可能。人工光合群落是由密切协作的光合自养微生物与异养微生物组成的新一代生物炼制平台，能够通过群落成员间的互利代谢分工，高效地利用光能将CO₂直接转化为生物质和多种化学品，是实现负碳生物制造的潜在途径之一，因其在适用性和鲁棒性方面的优势受到了广泛的关注。近年来，随着系统生物学研究和合成生物技术的快速发展，多种研究策略被用于人工光合群落的设计与优化，取得了长远的进展，促进了对光合群落生产的理解。本文综述了光合群落的互作机制、独到优势和系统生物学研究方法，着重介绍人工光合群落的底盘升级、固定化/区室化技术、加强内部多层次调控等设计与优化策略以及在不同领域的应用进展。在此基础上，探讨了进一步将人工光合群落规模化应用所面临的光合效率和中间碳水化合物限制以及外源生物污染等潜在挑战，对纳米半导体材料杂合、物种间精细互作关系调控、基于多组学数据的群落模型构建等未来的改造方向和研究策略进行了展望。

关键词: 合成生物学, 光合群落, 负碳生物合成, CO₂利用, 系统生物学, 群体感应