Advances in integrating microbial metabolism with catalytic systems

Integrated catalytic systems that combine microbial metabolism with chemocatalysis, electrocatalysis, photocatalysis and biocatalysis are emerging as sustainable solutions for hybrid chemical-biosynthetic production and environmental remediation. By leveraging the strengths of engineered microbial cells and their metabolic pathways, along with synthetic catalysts, these hybrid systems use the unique benefits of each catalytic process to enable complex, efficient transformations, marking a notable advance over conventional methods. This Review highlights the progress in the assembly of hybrid catalytic systems and their application in a range of diverse fields. We examine the advantages of integrating chemocatalysts with whole-cell microorganisms, fabricating bioelectrochemical systems and microbial-photocatalytic integration. We also discuss how metabolic pathways can be harnessed for the sustainable production of higher-value products and pharmaceuticals and discuss how these hybrid systems can reduce costs, eliminate enzyme purification steps and facilitate multistep cascades.