Novel approaches to engineering autolysis: A scalable alternative for recovery of bioproducts

For intracellularly expressed bioproducts, cell disruption is an essential unit operation in the bioprocess. Traditional cell lysis techniques, such as homogenisation or chemical lysis, may result in product damage due to the shear forces or the harsh chemicals used, respectively. Autolysis, or the expression of lytic proteins to trigger self-lysis, presents as an alternative approach for intracellular bioproduct release. However, challenges of using autolysis in bioprocessing have hindered the wide adoption of the technique. There are three main issues related to autolysis: leaky gene expression leading to reduced performance in fermentation, low lysis efficiencies compared to traditional methods, and a lack of consideration for scale-up in the current literature. This review summarises these challenges and discusses the potential solutions.