Abstract

ORTUNO-FAJARDO, María Paula; CHACON-HALABI, Jose Rodolfo; FLORES-ESPINOZA, María Paula  and  AGUILAR-BRAVO, Roger. Synthetic biology as a tool used to obtain compounds of interest in the food industry. Tecnología en Marcha [online]. 2021, vol.34, n.1, pp.69-79. ISSN 0379-3982.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/tm.v34i1.4830.

The engineering of metabolic pathways through synthetic biology has become an important tool for the food industry because it seeks the optimization of processes and production of compounds of interest. It is possible to produce compounds that are highly coveted, such as enzymes that take part in fermentation processes, or synthesis of products of high demand, or flavoring produced naturally by a microorganism. This can be achieved through genetic edition developed by synthetic biology through the assembly of genetic constructs CRISPR and synthetic mRNA. These techniques are used to increase the productivity of an organism that on its own produces a compound of interest, or to genetically modify a microorganism so that it can perform the synthesis of a product. However, it is necessary to take into account that not all microorganisms have the genetic tools necessary for the required post-translational modifications to activate enzyme or protein functions, and that the insertion of de novo pathways may result in both toxic compounds and intermediates for the chosen host. Particularly, it is common, when working in the food industry, to choose host microorganisms safe to be consumed by human beings, like GRAS organisms such as lactic acid bacteria and, more recently, yeasts of the Saccharomyces genus.

Keywords : Biobrick; modular cloning; restriction enzymes; biofactories; metagenomics.

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