Synthetic biology of Fusarium for the sustainable production of valuable bioproducts

Abstract

Synthetic biology offers transformative opportunities to optimise Fusarium species as efficient platforms for the sustainable production of diverse bioproducts. Advanced engineering techniques, including CRISPR/Cas9, RNA interference and synthetic promoters, have enhanced the manipulation of metabolic pathways, enabling higher yields of industrially relevant compounds. Recent insights from next-generation sequencing and omics technologies have significantly expanded our understanding of Fusarium's metabolic networks, leading to more precise strain engineering. Despite these advances, challenges such as metabolic bottlenecks, regulatory complexities and strain stability remain significant barriers to industrial-scale applications. The development of efficient genetic tools, together with the expansion of our knowledge of Fusarium physiology and genetics thanks to systems biology approaches, holds promise to unlock Fusarium's full potential as a sustainable cell factory. This review focuses on the genetic and metabolic tools available to enhance Fusarium's capacity to produce biofuels, pharmaceuticals, enzymes and other valuable compounds. It also highlights key innovations and discusses future directions for leveraging Fusarium as an environmentally friendly bioproduction system.