Hijacking CRISPR-Cas for high-throughput bacterial metabolic engineering: advances and prospects

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Synthetic Biology
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Industrial strain development demands high engineering efficiencies.
• CRISPR-Cas technology offers user-friendly and stringent genome engineering in bacteria.
• This has accelerated metabolic engineering in both model and non-model organisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current status of prokaryotic metabolic engineering for producing biotechnologically relevant products.
• To highlight the role of CRISPR-related DNA/RNA endonuclease variants in this field.
• To discuss the potential of novel Cas9-like systems for expanding applications and host organisms.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on CRISPR-Cas applications in prokaryotic metabolic engineering.
• Analysis of different CRISPR-related DNA/RNA endonuclease variants.
• Exploration of their use in creating improved cell factories.

Main Results:

• CRISPR-Cas technologies have markedly improved genome engineering efficiencies in bacteria.
• Metabolic engineering has been accelerated in Escherichia coli, Clostridia, Bacilli, Streptomycetes, and cyanobacteria.
• These advancements open new avenues for utilizing bacteria as enhanced cell factories.

Conclusions:

• CRISPR-Cas systems are pivotal for advancing prokaryotic metabolic engineering.
• The discovery of new Cas9-like systems will broaden the scope of applications and host organisms.
• This facilitates the development of novel production hosts for biotechnological products.