Engineering microbial systems for the production and functionalization of biomaterials

Abstract

A new trend in biomaterials synthesis is harnessing the production of microorganisms, owing to the low cost and sustainability. Because microorganisms use DNA as a production code, it is possible for humans to reprogram these cells and thus build living factories for the production of biomaterials. Over the past decade, advances in genetic engineering have enabled the development of various intriguing biomaterials with useful properties, with commercially available biomaterials representing only a few of these. In this review, we discuss the common strategies for the production of bulk and commodity biogenic polymers, and highlight several notable approaches such as modular protein engineering and pathway optimization in achieving these goals. We finally investigate the available synthetic biology tools that allow engineering of living materials, and discuss how this emerging class of materials has expanded the application scope of biomaterials.