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Enhancing Biosynthesis and Manipulating Flux in Whole Cells with Abiotic Catalysis
Author(s) -
Stewart Kelsey N.,
Domaille Dylan W.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.202000458
Subject(s) - flux (metallurgy) , metabolic engineering , metabolic pathway , biochemical engineering , abiotic component , artificial photosynthesis , synthetic biology , metabolic flux analysis , chemistry , nanotechnology , biocompatible material , scope (computer science) , biological system , catalysis , biochemistry , computer science , computational biology , metabolism , materials science , biology , photocatalysis , organic chemistry , ecology , enzyme , engineering , programming language , biomedical engineering
Metabolic engineering uses genetic strategies to drive flux through desired pathways. Recent work with electrochemical, photochemical, and chemocatalytic setups has revealed that these systems can also expand metabolic pathways and manipulate flux in whole cells. Electrochemical systems add or remove electrons from metabolic pathways to direct flux to more‐ or less‐reduced products. Photochemical systems act as synthetic light‐harvesting complexes and yield artificial photosynthetic organisms. Biocompatible chemocatalysis increases product scope, streamlines syntheses, and yields single‐flask processes to deliver products that would be challenging to synthesize through biosynthetic means alone. Here, we exclusively highlight systems that combine abiotic systems with living whole cells, taking particular note of strategies that enable the merger of these typically disparate systems.