Advances in promoter engineering: Novel applications and predefined transcriptional control

Abstract

Synthetic biology continues to progress by relying on more robust tools for transcriptional control, of which promoters are the most fundamental component. Numerous studies have sought to characterize promoter function, determine principles to guide their engineering, and create promoters with stronger expression or tailored inducible control. In this review, we will summarize promoter architecture and highlight recent advances in the field, focusing on the novel applications of inducible promoter design and engineering towards metabolic engineering and cellular therapeutic development. Additionally, we will highlight how the expansion of new, machine learning techniques for modeling and engineering promoter sequences are enabling more accurate prediction of promoter characteristics.

Keywords: bacteria; bioinformatics; cellular engineering; computational biotechnology; gene expression; machine learning; metabolic engineering; promoter engineering; synthetic biology; transcription; yeast.