Critical Reviews in Biotechnology最新文献

{"title":"Recent advances in L-cysteine bioproduction: biocatalytic strategies and metabolic engineering solutions.","authors":"Mingli Zhao, Di Wu, Yuting Liao, Teng Chen, Wenli Zhang, Wanmeng Mu","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2722960","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2722960","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>L-cysteine is a naturally occurring sulfur-containing amino acid bearing a reactive thiol group. It plays vital roles in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis and synthesizing bioactive compounds, thus gaining widespread attention and broad applications in: food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and feed industries. Currently, its industrial production mainly relies on keratin hydrolysis, which causes serious environmental and safety concerns. By contrast, biocatalytic and microbial fermentation have emerged as sustainable and safe alternatives. This review systematically summarizes current bioproduction strategies for L-cysteine, covering biocatalytic pathways and metabolic engineering of microbial cell factories. We further elaborate the metabolic pathways, regulatory networks, and transport systems of L-cysteine in three mainstream microbial chassis, including <i>Escherichia coli</i>, <i>Corynebacterium glutamicum</i>, and <i>Pantoea ananatis</i>. Core production bottlenecks and targeted metabolic engineering solutions are also comprehensively discussed. Finally, future prospects for sustainable industrial L-cysteine production are proposed.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1201-1221"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148976035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Current trends and advances of microbial biosurfactants in the biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.","authors":"Raman Krishnamoorthi, Pambayan Ulagan Mahalingam, Kaviyadharshini Muthuramalingam, Shu-Han Chang, Cheng-Yu Lin, Jia-You Fang","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2711971","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2711971","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microbial biosurfactants are emerging as sustainable alternatives to synthetic surfactants due to their biodegradability, low toxicity, and multifunctional biological activities. Their potential in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications is increasingly recognized, yet integrated evaluations that link production strategies to translational outcomes remain limited. This review critically examines recent advances in biosurfactant production, optimization, and purification, as well as their applications in drug delivery, nanomedicine, antimicrobial therapy, vaccine formulation, wound healing, and immunomodulation. Major classes, including glycolipids, lipopeptides, phospholipids, and polymeric biosurfactants, are compared in terms of physicochemical properties and therapeutic potential. Evidence shows biosurfactants can reduce bacterial adhesion by up to 90%, inhibit biofilm formation by over 80%, and enhance antibiotic efficacy against multidrug-resistant pathogens. Biosurfactant-based carriers such as liposomes, micelles, nanoemulsions, and nanoparticles improve drug solubility, stability, bioavailability, and targeted release. Advances in engineered microbial platforms, low-cost substrates, and process optimization have enhanced production feasibility, though clinical translation remains constrained by cost, downstream processing, formulation stability, safety, and regulatory hurdles. Emerging approaches, including AI-assisted optimization and multiomics-guided discovery, promise next-generation biosurfactants with superior therapeutic performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1061-1086"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148760039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Itaconic acid biomanufacturing: metabolic engineering and green process development.","authors":"Jiaqi Yu, Zhiwen Wang, Tao Chen","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2690055","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2690055","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Itaconic acid (IA), an important unsaturated dicarboxylic acid, finds wide applications in industry, medicine, food, and energy. Biotechnological production of IA offers advantages in sustainability, process controllability, and the potential for high titers in selected hosts, although cost competitiveness remains a major barrier to industrial deployment. However, several challenges still hinder its large-scale industrial production, including: low substrate utilization efficiency, difficulty in pathway regulation, downstream separation bottlenecks, and environmental concerns. To address these challenges and further improve IA production through metabolic engineering, this review summarizes recent advances and key technologies in IA biosynthesis. Engineering strategies for <i>de novo</i> IA production were analyzed, the application of whole-cell catalysis and fermentation process optimization to enhance IA yield was discussed, and the use of renewable resources as substrates for IA production was reviewed. In addition, the prospects of AI-assisted strain engineering and green, low-carbon process technologies for IA biosynthesis were examined. These insights provide valuable guidance for understanding metabolic engineering strategies and bioprocess innovations aimed at improving IA production in alignment with sustainable and low-carbon objectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1183-1200"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148629726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enzyme-driven antimicrobial resistance and advancements in sustainable anti-infective strategies.","authors":"Ananya Mukherjee, Damini Thakur, Maira Ahuja, Pooskuri Nayan, Lokender Kumar","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2693159","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2693159","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global issue that has reduced the efficacy of antibiotics for treating life-threatening bacterial infections. Bacterial adaptive enzymatic defense mechanisms allow cells to activate or modify specific enzymes that inactivate antibiotics and support survival under antimicrobial stress. Antibiotics are predominantly inactivated through enzymatic degradation or chemical modification. Most of the β-lactamases, macrolide esterases, tetracycline-modifying enzymes, fosfomycin degrading enzymes, aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes, and other bacterial enzymes chemically modify or degrade the antibiotics making them inactive. This review covers classification and mechanisms of enzyme-mediated resistance and emphasizes the significant enzymes involved in inactivation of various antibiotic classes. It also summarizes recent biotechnological advances to combat antibiotic resistance, including β-lactamase inhibitors, phage therapy, antimicrobial peptides, and CRISPR-Cas9 systems, along with emerging therapeutic approaches and current trends in antibiotic research. A deeper understanding of enzyme-mediated resistance and the cellular intelligence driving bacterial adaptation is crucial for designing effective therapeutic strategies, preserving antibiotic efficacy, and reducing the global burden of resistant infections.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1126-1164"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148758183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Opportunities in next-generation porous membrane-based extracellular vesicle processing and applications.","authors":"Kevin E Petersen, Munther Alsudais, Mehdi Dehghani, Thomas R Gaborski","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2699342","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2699342","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extracellular vesicle (EV) research and applications increasingly leverages porous membrane technologies beyond traditional filtration methods used for isolation and purification. While filtration remains foundational in EV handling, emerging applications employ membranes directly in new EV research contexts, such as: three-dimensional cell culture, tissue barrier modeling, environmental monitoring, and horizontal EV transfer studies. Concurrently, advancements in membrane science are providing novel modifications leading to significantly enhanced membrane performance in EV applications. These innovations include: surface-enhanced membranes for plasmonic detection, selective EV corona characterization and manipulation, targeted EV removal strategies, self-assembled and patterned membranes to simplify production and improve consistency, customized pore geometries for optimized throughput, and self-cleaning membranes to mitigate fouling. Collectively, developments in these porous membrane technologies promise to markedly improve the effectiveness, precision, and scope of EV-based research and applications, particularly within diagnostics, therapeutics, and cancer biology.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1087-1104"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148863773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advancements in resveratrol formulations for enhanced probiotic potential and high-yield productions.","authors":"Sonia Sharma, Gursharan Kaur, Gurleen Kaur Sodhi, Ramandeep Kaur, Santosh Kumar Rath, Jasdeep Singh, Nancy George, Vagish Dwibedi","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2698072","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2698072","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound has garnered attention for its of biological activities. It is endogenously produced in plants in response to environmental stimuli. However, sustainable commercial production of the compound is still a work in progress. The review examines how resveratrol and its derivatives influence probiotic activity along with the underlying molecular mechanisms, and a segment on formulation and bioavailability. The therapeutic applications of resveratrol, particularly in conjunction with probiotics, are explored, with a focus on evidence derived primarily from <i>in vitro</i> and preclinical studies. Based on the evidence from stain specific <i>in vitro</i> studies and preclinic models, resveratrol has been reported to potentially aid the survival of probiotics possibly <i>via</i> upregulation of heat shock proteins, antioxidant enzymes and fibronectin binding proteins. Resveratrol also helps in modulating signaling pathways and enhancing therapeutic synergy in experimental settings. In addition, nano formulations have shown to enhance the bioavailability of resveratrol in preclinical studies. The review highlights the importance of resveratrol-probiotic formulations as a promising area of investigation, paving a unified perspective for future studies while clinical validation is required for translational applications of the compound.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1105-1125"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149105389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimizing yeast surface display efficiency: a multifaceted strategy analysis.","authors":"Fanyu Chen, Chaowei Zhou, Peifang Ren, Tianpeng Chen, Yu Sha, Wenjun Sun, Yong Chen","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2728042","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2728042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microbial cell surface display systems represent a promising and robust approach for engineering whole-cell biocatalysts, with broad applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. This methodology overcomes limitations in substrate transport, eliminates the laborious and time-consuming process of enzyme purification, and enhances reusability and regenerability in repeated batch processes, thereby delivering economic benefits. Among various host systems, yeast surface display (YSD) offers unique advantages, such as large cell size, ease of culture and genetic manipulation, and the capacity for complete post-translational processing of secreted proteins. This review highlights strategies to improve the efficiency of YSD from novel perspectives, including intracellular molecular transcription, cell surface engineering, and external spatial expansion. Additionally, it comprehensively summarizes the practical applications of YSD in biocatalysis, underscoring their transformative potential in industrial and biomedical contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1248-1263"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148976019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engineering ATP homeostasis to enhance robustness and productivity in microbial cell factories.","authors":"Haoran Ding, Mengtian Lu, Hongyu Zhang, Ping Zheng, Yan Zhu, Jibin Sun","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2726280","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2726280","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the primary energy currency of microbial cells and a system-wide signal coordinating metabolism, gene expression and cellular physiology. Yet, ATP homeostasis is often treated implicitly in strain and process engineering. This review presents an ATP-centered framework for microbial cell factory design, integrating mechanistic interpretation, quantitative measurement, computational modeling and engineering strategies. ATP homeostasis is maintained through a dynamic balance between ATP-generating and ATP-consuming processes. ATP is mainly generated by substrate-level phosphorylation and oxidative phosphorylation, and consumed by biosynthesis, transport, maintenance, stress protection, and protein quality control. Beyond energy supply, the adenylate pool regulates transcription through ATP-dependent initiation and regulatory factors, translation through nucleotide availability and ribosome activity, proteostasis through ATP-dependent chaperones and proteases, and metabolism through allosteric control. We critically assess ATP measurement approaches, including luciferase-based assays, chromatography and mass spectrometry, and genetically encoded biosensors. ATP-explicit modeling frameworks are discussed for quantifying ATP supply and demand and guiding rational engineering. ATP-centered engineering strategies are organized by their effects on ATP supply, consumption and allocation, including optimizing ATP yield and energy-conversion efficiency, minimization of nonproductive expenditure, dynamic control of ATP homeostasis, enhancement of ATP turnover, attenuation of ATP-dependent feedback inhibition, and implementation of synthetic ATP-regeneration modules and orthogonal energy systems. Strategy selection depends on pathway ATP balance, cellular state and industrial process. ATP engineering should therefore optimize, rather than simply maximize or minimize, ATP generation, consumption and allocation. Together, integrating ATP sensing, mechanistic modeling, and ATP-explicit engineering can support energy-aware design of robust, high-performing microbial cell factories.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1222-1247"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148975957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recent advances and perspectives in multi-enzyme systems and immobilization for efficient rare sugars synthesis.","authors":"Kangqing Fei, Zijie Li","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2711978","DOIUrl":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2711978","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rare sugars have attracted substantial interest owing to their critical roles in agriculture, cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Traditional chemical synthesis methods face limitations such as low selectivity and environmental concerns. Consequently, enzymatic synthesis of rare sugars has emerged as an increasingly prominent research focus. To address the limitations of single-enzyme systems, multi-enzyme reactions have been developed as promising approaches, encompassing isomerases, epimerases, aldolases, phosphatases, oxidases, dehydratases, and associated coenzymes. Through the utilization of multi-enzyme systems, substrate costs can be reduced while the overall yields of rare sugars are enhanced. Furthermore, the application of immobilized enzymes is critical for optimizing the production process. Immobilization techniques can reduce reaction costs, improve enzyme properties, and enhance efficiency and stability. This review summarizes multi-enzyme systems for rare sugars biosynthesis and diverse immobilization methods, including traditional approaches, innovative nanomaterial-based techniques, and the use of scaffold proteins. Additionally, this review incorporates a techno-economic analysis of rare sugars production, addressing bottlenecks associated with enzyme stability and process costs, aiming to provide guidance for the industrial translation of rare sugar manufacturing technologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1165-1182"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148758154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From cell factories to photobiocatalysts: reengineering cyanobacteria for solar-driven chemical manufacturing.","authors":"Kungang Pan, Dailin Liu, Lei Chen, Tao Sun, Weiwen Zhang","doi":"10.1080/07388551.2026.2741611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07388551.2026.2741611","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To achieve more sustainable, light-powered chemical manufacturing, cyanobacterial engineering is expanding from conventional carbon-accumulating \"cell factories\" toward the complementary use of cyanobacteria as \"whole-cell photobiocatalysts.\" This review critically examines this conceptual extension. By shifting the engineering focus from carbon-centric biosynthesis to electron- and energy-coupled catalysis, this emerging approach partially decouples target-product formation from the de novo assembly of CO₂-derived carbon skeletons. Instead, it exploits photosynthetically generated reducing equivalents and ATP to support redox and energy-dependent enzymatic transformations, thereby reducing dependence on external cofactor- or energy-regeneration systems. We outline a multidimensional engineering framework that integrates carbon-flux redirection (\"push\"), coupling to photosynthetically generated reducing equivalents and ATP (\"drive\"), and product-removal-driven \"pull\" through secretion, volatilization, or <i>in situ</i> extraction. We further highlight advances in light-tolerant and stress-robust cyanobacterial chassis, together with emerging process strategies based on attached-growth and biofilm photobioreactors. We also critically consider genetic instability, variable enzyme-coupling efficiency, and scale-dependent light and mass-transfer limitations. Finally, we discuss the biophysical and energetic limits of light-to-chemical conversion, competition for reducing power, the largely conceptual potential of temporally decoupled light harvesting and dark-phase catalysis, and the need to select economically viable target products using rigorous techno-economic and life-cycle analyses. Collectively, this review provides conceptual and practical guidance for developing sustainable photosynthetic biomanufacturing platforms.</p>","PeriodicalId":10752,"journal":{"name":"Critical Reviews in Biotechnology","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":8.7,"publicationDate":"2026-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149263563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}