Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3): 20220362.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20220362

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Applications of CRISPR-Cas Technologies in Microbiome Engineering

HU Yucan, CAO Zhaohui, ZHENG Linggang, SHEN Juntao, ZHAO Wei, DAI Lei()   

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology,Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology,Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenzhen 518055,China
  • Received:2022-05-21 Online:2023-03-10 Published:2023-03-14
  • Contact: DAI Lei E-mail:lei.dai@siat.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2019YFA0906700);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31971513)

Abstract:

Microbiome engineering aims to achieve targeted and precise manipulation of complex microbial communities. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein(CRISPR-Cas) system is an emerging powerful tool for gene editing, which provides a probability to engineering microbiome from gene to ecosystem level. In this review, we summarize recent developments in the emerging area of microbiome engineering, focusing on the applications of CRISPR-Cas technologies in genetic manipulation of microbiome. To begin with, we introduce the concept of microbiome engineering. We propose to classify microbiome engineering by: (1) manipulation at the ecological level, i. e., alterations in community composition; (2) manipulation at the genetic level, i. e., editing of metagenomes. Furthermore, manipulation of mcirobiomes at the genetic level can be achieved via different approaches: (1) genome engineering of cultured microbial isolates; (2) metgenome engineering in situ. CRISPR-Cas tools have important applications in microbiome engineering, including strain-specific deletion, transcriptome regulation, site-specific insertion in complex communities, and dissecting the contribution of a single gene in microbiome-host interaction. The complexity of microbiomes requires the development of assistive technologies, such as highly efficient delivery methods, controllable genetic regulatory elements, etc. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities in microbiome engineering, an emerging research area at the intersection of synthetic biology, chemical biology and microbiome. Breakthroughs in microbiome engineering will greatly advance our understanding of microbiome and transform many fields such as human health, agriculture, and environmental protection.

Key words: Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein(CRISPR- Cas) system, Microbiome engineering, Genome editing technology, Delivery method, Genetic regulatory element

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