Advances in molecular genetics and synthetic biology tools in unconventional yeasts

Abstract:

Currently, it is widely accepted that the combination of advanced synthetic biology techniques with traditional molecular genetic techniques could help construct and optimize metabolic pathways in yeast cell factories. The research of yeast synthetic biology first began in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and in recent years has rapidly expanded to some unconventional yeast species including Pichia pastoris, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces lactis, and Hansenula polymorpha. By using synthetic biology-based metabolic engineering strategies, scientists have successfully developed a series of unconventional yeast cell factories that can efficiently produce different valuable industrial products such as biomaterials, biofuels, biochemicals, enzymes, food additives and pharmaceuticals. This review systematically summarizes the current status and applications of synthetic biology tools (mainly genome editing tools), synthetic biological parts (mainly promoters and terminators) and related molecular genetic methods in the aforementioned unconventional yeast systems. Furthermore, potential applications of other synthetic biology approaches in further optimizing bioproduction in the unconventional yeast biofactories and key challenges are discussed. This review provides a theoretical guidance for engineering these promising non-model microbial chassis to achieve high-level production of value-added products.