Genetically-encoded biosensors for analyzing and controlling cellular process in yeast

Monireh Marsafari, Jingbo Ma, Mattheos Koffas, Peng Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Yeast has been a robust platform to manufacture a broad range of biofuels, commodity chemicals, natural products and pharmaceuticals. The membrane-bound organelles in yeast provide us the means to access the specialized metabolism for various biosynthetic applications. The separation and compartmentalization of genetic and metabolic events presents us the opportunity to precisely control and program gene expression for higher order biological functions. To further advance yeast synthetic biology platform, genetically encoded biosensors and actuators haven been engineered for in vivo monitoring and controlling cellular processes with spatiotemporal resolutions. The dynamic response, sensitivity and operational range of these genetically encoded sensors are determined by the regulatory architecture, dynamic assemly and interactions of the related proteins and genetic elements. This review provides an update of the basic design principles underlying the allosteric transcription factors, GPCR and optogenetics-based sensors, aiming to precisely analyze and control yeast cellular processes for various biotechnological applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)175-182
Number of pages8
JournalCurrent Opinion in Biotechnology
Volume64
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2020
Externally publishedYes

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