Advancing stress biotechnology for robust sustainable bioproduction

Area of Science:

• Microbial biotechnology
• Synthetic biology
• Biochemical engineering

Background:

• Environmental stressors reduce the economic viability of microbial bioproduction.
• Traditional strategies focus on maximizing cell growth, but a balance between stress tolerance and efficiency is key.
• Yeast are crucial for bioproduction, but their robustness against environmental challenges needs improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the concept of stress biotechnology for microbial robustness.
• Review advances in yeast engineering for enhanced bioproduction under stress.
• Explore future directions using AI for intelligent cell factories.

Main Methods:

• Focus on global metabolic rewiring, cell lifespan engineering, and artificial membrane-less organelles in yeast.
• Integrate rational design with random strategies like adaptive laboratory evolution and CRISPR interference libraries.
• Discuss the precise partitioning of cellular resources between defense and synthesis.

Main Results:

• Stress biotechnology enables a balance between cellular defense and product synthesis, unlike conventional stress biology.
• Specific engineering approaches like metabolic rewiring and artificial organelles enhance yeast robustness.
• Random strategies effectively identify novel targets for stress tolerance.

Conclusions:

• Stress biotechnology offers a novel framework for improving microbial cell factories.
• Future integration with artificial intelligence will accelerate the discovery of stress-tolerance targets and dynamic circuit engineering.
• This review lays the groundwork for developing next-generation robust and intelligent yeast cell factories.