Microbial Biocontainment Systems for Clinical, Agricultural, and Industrial Applications

Angles, Aarón Pantoja; Valle-Pérez, Alexander U.; Hauser, Charlotte; Mahfouz, Magdy M.

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.830200

“…Many systems have been put forward to conditionally kill bacterial cells (sometimes called "kill switches"), some using lysins and holins that render the cell membrane porous. 411,412 An analogous system has been developed to lyse Synechocystis PCC 6803 cells in response to nickel 413 or green light. 414 In either case, the inducer stimulated the expression of phage holins and endolysins (taken from either phage P22 413 or phage T4 414 ).…”

Section: Iiic4a Delivery Of Neoplast Genetic Payload Through Conditio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering of crop plants to facilitate bottom-up innovation: A possible role for broad host-range nitroplasts and neoplasts

Elhai¹

2023

Preprint

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The astonishing gains in agricultural output since the 1960's has come at an environmental cost. It has also failed to bring much benefit to sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world that is predicted to have the greatest population increase in the coming decades and greatest agricultural need. The increase in productivity required to feed the billions that will soon be added to the world's population is more likely to succeed if creative direction lies in the hands of those most intimately acquainted with local agricultural concerns. Nitrogen has been a major limitation, particularly in sub-Saharan agriculture, and I look here at the prospect for extending biological nitrogen fixation to the crops and practices of local interest. A source of optimism in this historically intractable problem is the discovery in certain algae of natural organelles – nitroplasts – derived from unicellular cyanobacteria that fix N2. Transferring nitroplasts to land plants seems possible only if the organelles rely little on their hosts. A survey of the metabolic capabilities of three of them indicate different degrees of independence. The nitroplast from the diatom Rhopalodia gibberula may need nothing from its host except a source of carbon (the nature of which is explored). The nitroplast from another diatom, Epithema turgida, is somewhat less independent, while the nitroplast from Braarudosphaera bigelowii (called UCYN-A) requires a great deal from its host, including imported protein. The evolutionary route to acquire proteins may have been greatly simplified if nitroplasts share proteins with chloroplasts, a co-resident cyanobacteria-derived organelle. The genomes of the diatom nitroplasts suggest the presence of a few enzymes that are rare in cyanobacteria but seemingly well suited to the special needs of a nitrogen-fixing organelle. I describe how the host-range of nitroplasts might be explored and how a stripped down version, called a neoplast, might simplify strain modification to such a degree that the process becomes accessible to academic researchers with limited resources, even to individual farmers.

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“…These kill switch-based TA systems efficiently lead to controlled cell death outside the production facility and can be easily engineered in GEM/GYM cells. What makes the TA systems so attractive for biocontainment applications is its pleiotropy, which targets different molecular mechanisms, like DNA and mRNA synthesis, cell cycle, nucleotide synthesis, and protein translation [127,128].…”

Section: Kill Switches Based On Type I and Ii Toxin-antitoxin Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biocontainment Techniques and Applications for Yeast Biotechnology

Pavão¹,

Sfalcin²,

Bonatto³

2023

Preprint

0

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Biocontainment techniques for genetically modified yeasts (GMYs) are pivotal due to the importance of these organisms for biotechnological processes and also due to the design of new yeast strains by using synthetic biology tools and technologies. Due to the large genetic modifications that many yeast strains display, it is highly desirable to avoid the leakage of GMY cells into natural environments and, consequently, the spread of synthetic genes and circuits by horizontal or vertical gene transfer mechanisms within the microorganisms. Moreover, it is also desirable to avoid that patented yeast gene technologies spread outside the production facility. In this review, it was evaluated the different biocontainment technologies currently available for GMYs. Interestingly, uniplex-type biocontainment approaches (UTBAs), which relies on nutrient auxotrophies induced by gene mutation or deletion, or the expression of simple kill switches apparatus, are still the major biocontainment approaches still in use with GMY. While bacteria like Escherichia coli account for advanced biocontainment technologies based on synthetic biology and multiplex-type biocontainment approaches (MTBAs), GMYs are distant from this scenario due to many reasons. Thus, a comparison of different UTBAs and MTBAs applied for GMY and genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) was made, indicating the major advances of biocontainment techniques for GMYs.

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“…These kill switch-based TA systems efficiently lead to controlled cell death outside the production facility and can be easily engineered in GEM/GYM cells (Figure 1). What makes the TA systems so attractive for biocontainment applications is its pleiotropy, which targets different molecular mechanisms, like DNA and mRNA synthesis, cell cycle, nucleotide synthesis, and protein translation [127,128].…”

Section: Kill Switches Based On Type I and Ii Toxin-antitoxin Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biocontainment Techniques and Applications for Yeast Biotechnology

Pavão¹,

Sfalcin²,

Bonatto³

2023

Preprint

2

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biocontainment techniques for genetically modified yeasts (GMYs) are pivotal due to the importance of these organisms for biotechnological processes and also due to the design of new yeast strains by using synthetic biology tools and technologies. Due to the large genetic modifications that many yeast strains display, it is highly desirable to avoid the leakage of GMY cells into natural environments and, consequently, the spread of synthetic genes and circuits by horizontal or vertical gene transfer mechanisms within the microorganisms. Moreover, it is also desirable to avoid that patented yeast gene technologies spread outside the production facility. In this review, it was evaluated the different biocontainment technologies currently available for GMYs. Interestingly, uniplex-type biocontainment approaches (UTBAs), which relies on nutrient auxotrophies induced by gene mutation or deletion, or the expression of simple kill switches apparatus, are still the major biocontainment approaches still in use with GMY. While bacteria like Escherichia coli account for advanced biocontainment technologies based on synthetic biology and multiplex-type biocontainment approaches (MTBAs), GMYs are distant from this scenario due to many reasons. Thus, a comparison of different UTBAs and MTBAs applied for GMY and genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) was made, indicating the major advances of biocontainment techniques for GMYs.

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Microbial Biocontainment Systems for Clinical, Agricultural, and Industrial Applications

Cited by 16 publications

References 102 publications

Engineering of crop plants to facilitate bottom-up innovation: A possible role for broad host-range nitroplasts and neoplasts

Engineering of crop plants to facilitate bottom-up innovation: A possible role for broad host-range nitroplasts and neoplasts

Biocontainment Techniques and Applications for Yeast Biotechnology

Biocontainment Techniques and Applications for Yeast Biotechnology

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