Engineered bacteriophages as programmable biocontrol agents

Phil Huss; Srivatsan Raman

doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2019.11.013

Engineered bacteriophages as programmable biocontrol agents

Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2020 Feb:61:116-121. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2019.11.013. Epub 2019 Dec 17.

Authors

Phil Huss¹, Srivatsan Raman²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
² Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: sraman4@wisc.edu.

Abstract

Bacteriophages (or 'phages') can be potent biocontrol agents but their potential has not been fully realized due to inherent limitations of natural phages. By leveraging new tools in synthetic biology, natural phages can be engineered to overcome these limitations to markedly improve their efficacy and programmability. Engineered phages can be used for targeted detection and removal of pathogens, in situ microbiome editing, gene delivery and programmable control of phage-bacterial interactions. In this mini review we examine different ways natural phages can be engineered as effective biocontrol agents through a design-build-test-learn platform and identify novel applications of engineered phages in food biotechnology.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Bacteriophages*
Synthetic Biology