Genetic Technologies in the Development of Industrial Microbiology

Modern strains of microorganisms used in industrial microbiology are the result of complex genetic manipulations. Such strains carry dozens of different mutations that alter the cell’s life strategy and ensure the overproduction of a target metabolite. Methods of induced variability (mutagenesis, genetic engineering, editing methods), and in recent years, methods of synthetic biology (de novo gene synthesis) have made the main contribution to the design of strains. At the same time, it is the methods of genomic editing (bacteriophage-specific recombination, homologous recombination and CRISP Cas systems) that meet modern biosafety requirements, and most importantly, they are the most powerful tool for creating industrial producer strains that ensure economically sound production of products with high market potential. The report examine the features of different editing systems for industrially significant types of microorganisms (corynebacteria, bacilli, enterobacteria, yeast), provide examples of the creation of strains-producers (amino acids, acrylic monomers, and carotenoids) at NRC “Kurchatov Institute” using the potential of natural diversity and genomic editing, and analyze the current state and measures for accelerated development of industrial microbiology.