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Molecular Biology Tools to Boost the Production of Natural Products
Published in Luzia Valentina Modolo, Mary Ann Foglio, Brazilian Medicinal Plants, 2019
Luzia Valentina Modolo, Samuel Chaves-Silva, Thamara Ferreira da Silva, Cristiane Jovelina da-Silva
Synthetic biology is a transdisciplinary science based on the knowledge on biology, chemistry, engineering, physics and informatics used to further understand how living systems function to redesign them for specific purposes (Moses and Goossens, 2017). A milestone article on synthetic biology was published in 2010, in which scientists successfully created the bacteria Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0 controlled by a synthetic genome (Gibson et al., 2010). This was the beginning of a most ambitious goal – to transform bacteria, yeast, algae and virus in synthetic organisms (bearing synthetic genomes) to perform specific functions such as the sustainable production of valuable molecules and biomaterials. Researchers who work on this branch of science use and/or modify techniques related to genetic engineering, microbiology and bioinformatics to design, synthesize and transfer DNAs to microorganisms (van der Helm et al., 2018). In a manner analogous to a computer, the microorganisms would be the hardware, while the synthetic DNA, the software. Idealized in a virtual environment, the synthetic DNA contains “scripts”, a series of programmable commands, that once integrated, will result in several responses by the microorganism that host the synthetic DNA (Wohlsen, 2011). Synthetic biology has the potential to revolutionize the production of plant-derived natural products from unicellular organisms (Moses and Goossens, 2017). Once a biosynthetic pathway is well characterized from the genetic point of view, synthetic biology can be used to introduce such pathways in heterologous expression systems such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Escherichia coli. Such organisms are of relatively easy maintenance in the laboratory, thus the shorter life cycle when compared, for instance, with whole medicinal plants. In this context, microorganisms are more advantageous when taking into account the production of natural products on a large scale (Moses and Goossens, 2017).
Design of artificial cells: artificial biochemical systems, their thermodynamics and kinetics properties
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2022
Adamu Yunusa Ugya, Lin Pohan, Qifeng Wang, Kamel Meguellati
An artificial cell should have the ability to self-replicate, get involved in a learning process, and keep homeostatic data (LYFE definition). In earlier concepts, von Neumann theory provides useful guidelines to build logically a self-replicating compartment [25]. However, to capture the entire spirit of cellular life, there is a need to consider many other nongenetic processes, e.g. molecular self-organization/crowding, artificial environment for nutrient exchange etc. Although the bottom-up approach motivates and also addresses the fundamental question of non-genetic processes, selective exchanges through phospholipid bilayer, osmotic pressure, transcription and translation processes are still challenging issues towards the development of workable microscopic vesicles. Recently, in a top-down approach [23], the genome of a living cell was knocked down to a minimum level to demonstrate that bacteria can be reprogrammed with synthetic genomes. Both bottom-up and top-down approaches towards the synthesis of artificial cells require the development of original methods and ideas [26]. Noireaux et al. demonstrated the states and the development of artificial cell synthesis with experimental constraints. Based on the basic idea of the development of a phospholipid-containing compartment encapsulating synthetic DNA, the expression of genes was carried in vitro upon the exchange of adequate nutrients. Moreover, cell-free transcription and translation permitted the expression of many genes. Nevertheless, the development and integration of synthetic DNA is still challenging for the synthesis of self-reproducing automatons and bacterial genomes [9] (Figure 1).