Bacterial synthetic biology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In metabolic engineering, releasing of carbon in the form of CO2 leads to significant decrease of atomic economy. Here, the authors construct a carbon-conserving pathway, which converts glucose into acetyl phosphate without carbon loss, with oscillatory system to improve production of multiple target compounds.

    • Likun Guo
    • , Min Liu
    •  & Guang Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several strategies have been employed to enhance the tumor-targeting and anti-cancer properties of engineered bacteria. Here the authors describe the design of alternating magnetic field-manipulated bacteria engineered to release an anti-CD47 nanobody, promoting anti-tumor immune response in preclinical cancer models.

    • Xiaotu Ma
    • , Xiaolong Liang
    •  & Guangjun Nie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The range of available copy numbers for cloning vectors is largely restricted to the handful of ORIs that have been isolated from plasmids found in nature. Here the authors introduce a plasmid system that allow for the continuous, finely-tuned control of plasmid copy number between 1 and 800 copies per cell.

    • Miles V. Rouches
    • , Yasu Xu
    •  & Guillaume Lambert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbial ecosystem-based bioproduction requires the regulation of phenotypic structure of microbial populations. Here, the authors report the construction of a programmed lysis system and its ability for reprograming microbial cooperation in poly(lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) and butyrate production by E. coli strains.

    • Wenwen Diao
    • , Liang Guo
    •  & Liming Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An efficient chassis for heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from Gram-negative bacteria is still unavailable. Here, the authors report rational construction of genome-reduced Burkholderials chassis to facilitate production of a class of new compounds by expressing BGC from Chitinimonas koreensis.

    • Jiaqi Liu
    • , Haibo Zhou
    •  & Xiaoying Bian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How microbial community properties change under increasingly complex combinations of resources remains unclear. Here, the authors studied hundreds of synthetic consortia to identify the factors that govern how growth and taxonomic diversity scale with environmental complexity.

    • Alan R. Pacheco
    • , Melisa L. Osborne
    •  & Daniel Segrè

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lignin conversion to higher value products is essential to the economic viability of lignocellulosic biorefineries. Here, the authors demonstrate the bioconversion of alkali pretreated lignin to itaconic acid by dynamic two stage fermentation using a signal-amplified nitrogen-limitation biosensor.

    • Joshua R. Elmore
    • , Gara N. Dexter
    •  & Adam M. Guss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The maintenance of ecological diversity depends on the strength and direction of competitive interactions, but these interactions are difficult to study in microbial communities. Here the authors use engineered E. coli strains to show that competitively weak strains can persist when pairwise interactions are asymmetrical.

    • Michael J. Liao
    • , Arianna Miano
    •  & Jeff Hasty

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An E. coli strain able to use CO2 fixation for sugar synthesis was previously generated by experimental evolution of an engineered strain. Here, Herz et al. show that specific mutations in five genes, encoding carbon metabolism enzymes or key regulators, are sufficient to enable robust growth of the strain.

    • Elad Herz
    • , Niv Antonovsky
    •  & Ron Milo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    N-acetyl-muramic acid (NAM) is a core component of the bacterial peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall, and is recognised by the innate immune system. Here the authors engineer Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria to incorporate a modified NAM into the backbone of PG, which can be labelled with click chemistry for imaging and tracking.

    • Hai Liang
    • , Kristen E. DeMeester
    •  & Catherine L. Grimes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic engineering of complex pathways is often hindered by pathway branching and generation of non-target compounds. Here, the authors show that by judicious combination of moderately selective enzyme variants, a non-natural C50 carotenoid can be generated in bacteria with minimal production of unwanted compounds.

    • Maiko Furubayashi
    • , Mayu Ikezumi
    •  & Daisuke Umeno

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving high carbon yields is crucial for biotechnological production of metabolites in engineered microorganisms. Here, Tashiroet al. generate E. colistrains that produce acetyl-CoA and a derived metabolite (isobutyl acetate) in the absence of pyruvate decarboxylation, leading to increased carbon yields.

    • Yohei Tashiro
    • , Shuchi H. Desai
    •  & Shota Atsumi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The control of cellular behaviour largely relies on genetic engineering, but artificial cells could be designed to control cell processes through chemical communication. Here, the authors develop an artificial cell that is able to translate a chemical message into a signal that can be sensed by E. coliand activate a cellular response.

    • Roberta Lentini
    • , Silvia Perez Santero
    •  & Sheref S. Mansy

  • Article |

    Synthetic gene circuits can be programmed in living cells to perform diverse cellular functions. Here, the authors program a genetic circuit that performs a Pavlovian-like learning and recall function in E. coli, and demonstrate the dynamic nature of this conditioning process at a population level.

    • Haoqian Zhang
    • , Min Lin
    •  & Qi Ouyang

Browse broader subjects

Browse Bacterial synthetic biology across other nature.com journals