Synthetic Regulatory Tools to Engineer Microbial Cell Factories for Chemical Production

Abstract Bio-based chemical production has enormous potential as an alternative to petroleum-based chemical production. To establish the economic feasibility of bio-based production, the metabolism of microbial cell factories should be engineered to maximize yield, titer, and productivity. Methods for regulating gene expression are critical for metabolic engineering because enzymes, the final products of gene expression, catalyze most of the reactions required to synthesize chemical products. Recent advances in the development of synthetic regulatory tools have enabled more complex but precise control of gene expression in either static or dynamic mode. These molecular tools have been successfully applied in the metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce diverse chemicals. Here, we review the synthetic regulatory tools along with the design strategies and applications in the context of metabolic engineering.