Looking for the pick of the bunch: high-throughput screening of producing microorganisms with biosensors.
The engineering of microbial strains for the production of small molecules of biotechnological interest is a time-consuming, laborious and expensive process. This can be mostly attributed to the fact that good producers cannot be readily obtained by high-throughput screening approaches since increased product formation usually does not confer a clear phenotype to producing strain variants. Recently, advances were made in the design and construction of genetically encoded RNA aptamer-based or transcription factor-based biosensors for detecting small molecules at the single-cell level. The first promising examples for the application of these molecular biosensors in combination with fluorescent-activated cell sorting as a high-throughput screening device demonstrated the value and potential of these new tools for microbial strain development.
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich D-52425, Germany.
Marcus
M
Schallmey
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich D-52425, Germany.
Julia
J
Frunzke
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich D-52425, Germany.
Lothar
L
Eggeling
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich D-52425, Germany. Electronic address: j.marienhagen@fz-juelich.de.
Jan
J
Marienhagen
D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005453:Fluorescence; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism
D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D014157:Transcription Factors