Recent advances in computer-aided engineering of microbial synthesis and nutritional functions of fucosylated...

Fucosylated oligosaccharides are critical components of human milk, playing essential roles in infant health through prebiotic and pathogens-blocking properties. It is challenge to achieve large-scale extraction from natural sources. Chemical and enzymatic synthesis methods are also costly. In view of this, microbial production has emerged as a promising alternative. This approach primarily relies on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies to construct engineered microbial strains, aiming to achieve the purpose of efficiently producing target oligosaccharides. To improve the biosynthesis yield, increasing fucosyltransferases activities and supplying sufficient precursors (e.g., GDP-_L-fucose) are the two main strategies to consider. What's more, rational design and virtual screening can be applied in selecting suitable fucosyltransferases or regulatory motifs to facilitate fucosylated oligosaccharides industrial application. Combining bioinformatic approaches with synthetic biological methods offers a powerful strategy to enable its precise and scalable production. This review gives a comprehensive overview of fucosylated oligosaccharides, summarizing recent advances in microbial biosynthesis and the potential of computer-aided production.