Synthetic cell factory offers substantial advantages in economically efficient production of biofuels, chemicals, and pharmaceutical compounds. However, to create a high-performance synthetic cell factory, precise regulation of cellular material and energy flux is essential. In this context, protein components including enzymes, transcription factor-based biosensors and transporters play pivotal roles. Protein engineering aims to create novel protein variants with desired properties by modifying or designing protein sequences. This review focuses on summarizing the latest advancements of protein engineering in optimizing various aspects of synthetic cell factory, including: enhancing enzyme activity to eliminate production bottlenecks, altering enzyme selectivity to steer metabolic pathways towards desired products, modifying enzyme promiscuity to explore innovative routes, and improving the efficiency of transporters. Furthermore, the utilization of protein engineering to modify protein-based biosensors accelerates evolutionary process and optimizes the regulation of metabolic pathways. The remaining challenges and future opportunities in this field are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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设计由蛋白质工程驱动的下一代合成细胞工厂


合成细胞工厂在经济有效地生产生物燃料、化学品和药物化合物方面具有显着优势。然而，要创建高性能合成细胞工厂，细胞材料和能量通量的精确调节至关重要。在这种情况下，包括酶、基于转录因子的生物传感器和转运蛋白在内的蛋白质成分发挥着关键作用。蛋白质工程旨在通过修饰或设计蛋白质序列来创建具有所需特性的新型蛋白质变体。本综述重点总结了蛋白质工程在优化合成细胞工厂各个方面的最新进展，包括：增强酶活性以消除生产瓶颈，改变酶选择性以引导代谢途径获得所需产品，改变酶混杂性以探索创新路线，以及提高运输商的效率。此外，利用蛋白质工程来修饰基于蛋白质的生物传感器可以加速进化过程并优化代谢途径的调节。还讨论了该领域剩余的挑战和未来的机遇。