Engineering microbial consortia through synthetic biology approach / 生物工程学报

There are a large number of natural microbial communities in nature. Different populations inside the consortia expand the performance boundary of a single microbial population through communication and division of labor, reducing the overall metabolic burden and increasing the environmental adaptability. Based on engineering principles, synthetic biology designs or modifies basic functional components, gene circuits, and chassis cells to purposefully reprogram the operational processes of the living cells, achieving rich and controllable biological functions. Introducing this engineering design principle to obtain structurally well-defined synthetic microbial communities can provide ideas for theoretical studies and shed light on versatile applications. This review discussed recent progresses on synthetic microbial consortia with regard to design principles, construction methods and applications, and prospected future perspectives.

GPo1 alkB gene expression for improvement of the degradation of diesel oil by a bacterial consortium

To facilitate the biodegradation of diesel oil, an oil biodegradation bacterial consortium was constructed. The alkane hydroxylase (alkB) gene of Pseudomonas putida GPo1 was constructed in a pCom8 expression vector, and the pCom8-GPo1 alkB plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli DH5α. The AlkB protein was expressed by diesel oil induction and detected through SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The culture of the recombinant (pCom8-GPo1 alkB/E. coli DH5α) with the oil biodegradation bacterial consortium increased the degradation ratio of diesel oil at 24 h from 31% to 50%, and the facilitation rates were increased as the proportion of pCom8-GPo1 alkB/E. coli DH5α to the consortium increased. The results suggested that the expression of the GPo1 gene in E. coli DH5α could enhance the function of diesel oil degradation by the bacterial consortium.