CRISPR/Cas9 Systems for the Development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Factories

Synthetic yeast cell factories provide a remarkable solution for the sustainable supply of a range of products, ranging from large-scale industrial chemicals to high-value pharmaceutical compounds. Synthetic biology is a field in which metabolic pathways are intensively studied and engineered. The clustered, regularly interspaced, short, palindromic repeat-associated (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) technology has emerged as the state-of-the-art gene editing technique for synthetic biology. Recently, the use of different CRISPR/Cas9 systems has been extended to the field of yeast engineering for single-nucleotide resolution editing, multiple-gene editing, transcriptional regulation, and genome-scale modifications. Such advancing systems have led to accelerated microbial engineering involving less labor and time and also enhanced the understanding of cellular genetics and physiology. This review provides a brief overview of the latest research progress and the use of CRISPR/Cas9 systems in genetic manipulation, with a focus on the applications of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell factory engineering.