What is pathway engineering?
Pathway engineering is a strategy for strain improvement by deleting, replacing, or adjusting of the expression of genes within a metabolic pathway. This approach allows to increase the productivity of a biosynthetic process or the generation of a completely new product.
Isomerase provides access to metabolic engineering technologies. We use these tools to manipulate intracellular metabolic processes. As a result, these engineered microbial strains produce the metabolite of interest via direct fermentation, effectively functioning as cell factories.
Our pathway engineering services include tools and proprietary methods for:
- Activating/inactivating the expression of one or more genes,
- In silico metabolic analysis,
- and fermentation process development.
In addition to these tools and methods, we have access to a wide variety of over 20 000 microbial strains from our proprietary strain collection or publicly available strains.
Strain improvement techniques
The primary goal of any strain improvement strategy is to optimize the production levels of a substance of interest by modifying the cell metabolism and its regulation, while keeping any impact to cell fitness minimal. At Isomerase, we tackle strain improvement from different angles depending on the specific requirements of your process.Classical strain improvement
In classical strain improvement, our researchers use random mutagenesis to create mutant strains. This process involves generating random mutations throughout the genome by exposing the cells to chemical or physical mutagens. The resulting cells are screened to identify those that produce higher quantities of the desired metabolite. This technique is valuable for creating a diverse pool of mutants quickly and does not limit the exploration to specific functions or traits.
Metabolic engineering
Metabolic engineering emerged in the 1990s as a way to address the limitations of random mutagenesis. Unlike classical strain improvement, metabolic engineering focuses on optimizing specific genes or pathways within the cell. The process systematically alters the metabolic pathways that lead to the production of the desired metabolite.
Our scientists use omics data and metabolic maps to identify the optimal metabolic pathway and its constraints. Through targeted genetic engineering, we can direct the metabolic flux is directed toward the synthesis of the product of interest. This results in a precise and controlled approach, which minimises unwanted side effects and improves the likelihood of introducing the desired mutations.
This field is constantly evolving due to advancements in synthetic biology and omics. Additionally, recent decreases in the cost of synthesized DNA and developments in genetic circuits help achieve the desired outcome.
What are the applications of pathway engineering?
Pathway engineering has a diverse array of applications across various industries. Some noteworthy examples are:
- Pharmaceutical: Production of therapeutic drugs such as insulin and antibiotics, develop antigens for vaccines, and create raw materials like animal-free bovine serum albumin (BSA).
- Environmental: Water treatment and bioremediation via degradative pathways of pollutants, or carbon sequestration through CO2-fixing pathways
- Agritech: Enhancing heterologous expression pathways for the production of natural pesticides and fertilizers
- Consumer goods: Cell factories with modified metabolic pathways producing sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel
- Food and ingredients: Developing animal-free alternatives and natural ingredients, such as flavor enhancers, polysaccharides, citric acid, glutamic acid, and sweeteners.
- Functional materials: Production of biomaterials, such as polylactic acid or fibres like silk.
By exploiting the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms, we can create more sustainable and environmentally friendly industrial solutions.
Pathway engineering at Isomerase
At Isomerase, as a microbial pathway CRO, we customize our solutions to meet your specific needs, whether you prefer a classical approach or innovative technology.We use metabolic pathway engineering to design microorganisms capable of producing valuable metabolites in an industrially scalable and cost-effective way. Our typical approach is as follows:
- Identify the target metabolic pathway producing the desired compound.
- Analyze the pathway using omics data and computational tools.
- Determine the metabolic and regulatory constraints and their negative effects on the titer.
- Select the gene (or genes) for insertion, modification, or deletion, and construct the vectors for transformation.
- Generate a strain containing the genetic alterations using microbial production hosts.
- Optimize the strain and its process.
If you are looking for an integrated biotechnology service provider, Isomerase is here to help. We are specialists in strain bioengineering, Bioinformatics, bioprocess, proteins and peptides. Our IsoZym platform provides end-to-end support for enzymes, proteins, peptides and natural products.