De novo design of biosynthetic pathways for bacterial production of bulk chemicals and biofuels

Recent advances in DNA synthesis and computer science have enabled the de novo design of biosynthetic pathways. Numerous computational tools are currently available for searching biosynthetic pathways and ranking them on the basis of multiple criteria for installation into microbial chassis strains. This new framework allows the design of artificial biosynthetic pathways without expert knowledge of the specific biochemical reactions involved. Moreover, genetic apparatuses with quantitative and predictable properties enable rational construction of gene circuits. Thus, our ability to construct microbial cells specialized for bio-production is accelerating. However, many synthetic biology tools have not yet been fully applied to metabolic engineering owing to the lack of interdisciplinary collaboration between metabolic engineers and synthetic biologists. Therefore, we have focused on discussing how synthetic biology tools can be applied to de novo design of biosynthetic pathways.