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Updated: Sep 26, 2025
07:59
An Optogenetic Method to Control and Analyze Gene Expression Patterns in Cell-to-cell Interactions
Published on: March 22, 2018
7.8K
Intracellular biosensor-based dynamic regulation to manipulate gene expression at the spatiotemporal level
Shenghu Zhou1,2, Hal S Alper3,4, Jingwen Zhou1,2
1National Engineering Research Center of Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
Critical Reviews in Biotechnology
|April 22, 2022
Summary
Intracellular biosensors enable precise control of cellular metabolism for improved compound production. These biosensors dynamically regulate metabolic flux at the single-cell level, overcoming challenges in industrial fermentation.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Synthetic Biology
- Metabolic Engineering
Background:
- Industrial fermentation faces challenges due to cellular heterogeneity (variants, cell age).
- Precise control of metabolic flux at the single-cell level is crucial for high productivity.
- Existing methods struggle to manage diverse cell populations in fermentation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review advances in designing and engineering intracellular biosensors.
- To compare spatiotemporal properties of biosensors and inducer distribution.
- To discuss the application of biosensors for dynamic metabolic flux control.
Main Methods:
- Highlighting design and engineering approaches for intracellular biosensors.
- Comparing spatiotemporal properties related to inducer distribution.
- Analyzing biosensor-mediated dynamic control of cellular metabolism.
Main Results:
- Intracellular biosensors can sense intra- and extracellular conditions in real-time.
- Biosensors can be engineered to balance biomass formation and compound overproduction.
- Dynamic control strategies can be implemented for single-cell or collective regulation.
Conclusions:
- Intracellular biosensors offer a powerful tool for precise metabolic regulation in fermentation.
- Engineering biosensors allows for tailored control of cellular processes.
- These systems can overcome limitations posed by cellular heterogeneity in industrial applications.
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