Historical Perspectives on the Bacterium Vibrio natriegens and its Potential to Revolutionize Bioengineering

Background: Vibrio natriegens is an aquatic bacterium that has the fastest doubling time of any currently known organism at approximate 9.8 min. This review delves into the early categorization of V. natriegens, its phylogeny and physiology, and the efforts aimed at studying its potential to enhance both micro- and macro-scale biotechnology. Methods: Twenty-eight research papers from scientific literature databases including PubMED (US National Library of Medicine), National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the American Society for Microbiology Journals were used in this study. Summary: Almost sixty years after the original isolate, microbiologists and bioengineers alike are expressing a renewed interest in V. natriegens as a possible replacement for Escherichia coli. Recent biotechnological efforts have been successful in developing the necessary genetic systems for such a transition. The productivity of V. natriegens suggests that the organism can also be used in large scale bio-refineries producing nutraceuticals and other bio-products.