Biotechnology advances最新文献

{"title":"Solar-powered quantum dot-biocatalyst biohybrids for semi-artificial photosynthesis: Advances in interfacial design and energy-mass transfer optimisation","authors":"Xuenan Shui ,&nbsp;Chen Deng ,&nbsp;Xiaoman He ,&nbsp;Daolun Liang ,&nbsp;Dekui Shen ,&nbsp;Wangbiao Guo ,&nbsp;Wenlei Zhu ,&nbsp;Xue Ning ,&nbsp;Richen Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108812","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108812","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Semi-artificial photosynthesis, integrating biocatalysts with photosensitive materials to enable self-photosensitization in non-photosynthetic microorganisms, is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field for solar-driven energy and chemical production using air, water, and sunlight. However, the efficiency of such constructed biocatalysts is often impeded by the limited biocompatibility, prevalent biotoxicity, and narrow spectral response associated with photosensitive materials. Quantum dots (QDs), zero-dimensional crystals, exhibit favorable photoexcitation properties and enhanced biocompatibility, providing essential reducing equivalents for microbial metabolisms. This review examines recent advances in semi-artificial photosynthesis, focusing on the self-assembly of microorganisms in conjunction with QDs. It highlights the biocompatible, directional design of QDs and explores the underlying mechanisms of electron and energy transfer within the microbe-QDs complexes. By leveraging the synergies of solar absorption and biocatalytic activity, this review discusses the future trajectory and potential improvements in semi-artificial photosynthesis, offering a paradigm-shifting approach to sustainable solar energy utilization. The solar-powered QDs-biocatalyst biohybrids for semi-artificial photosynthesis are projected to emerge as a transformative technology in advanced energy production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108812"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advances in the microbial production of erythritol: From synthetic biological foundations to circular biomanufacturing","authors":"Yupeng Nie ,&nbsp;Jiayuan Liang ,&nbsp;Ruiguo Li ,&nbsp;Mingjing Yao ,&nbsp;Xuebing Ren ,&nbsp;Zhiqiang Xiong ,&nbsp;Guangqiang Wang ,&nbsp;Lianzhong Ai ,&nbsp;Yanjun Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108844","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108844","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Erythritol is a four‑carbon sugar alcohol that is naturally synthesized by various microorganisms as an osmotic pressure protectant. Given its health attributes, such as natural origin and zero calories, the demand for erythritol as a sweetener in the food industry has rapidly increased. Microbial fermentation is currently the primary method for producing erythritol but faces technical bottlenecks, such as high raw material costs, low fermentation efficiency, and byproduct accumulation. This paper systematically reviews the research progress and cutting-edge strategies for enhancing the efficiency of erythritol synthesis from multiple perspectives, including the selection and reconstruction of chassis cells, exploration and modification of key enzyme elements, refined design and modification of metabolic modules, system-level metabolic network analyses and intelligent breeding, and circular biomanufacturing systems. It provides an in-depth analysis of key technologies and innovative approaches at each level, offering a forward-looking perspective on future research directions. This paper aims to provide a theoretical foundation for constructing efficient microbial cell factories and promoting the green and low-carbon manufacturing of erythritol.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108844"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146161044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The fungal cure: Harnessing mycelial approach as sustainable green solution for industrial waste treatment","authors":"Michael Dare Asemoloye","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108834","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108834","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Industrialization has intensified releases of complex waste streams (e.g., synthetic dyes, petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and plastics) whose treatment can be costly, energy-intensive, and often incomplete using conventional physicochemical methods. ‘Mycoremediation’ defined as fungi mediated remediation, or their secreted materials/enzymes offers compelling advantages. These advantages stem across the extensive mycelial networks for matrix penetration, non-specific oxidative enzyme systems that transform lignin-like xenobiotics, and cell-wall chemistries that sorb metal ions. This review synthesizes mechanistic foundations on fungal enzymes (laccases; class II peroxidases such as manganese peroxidase and lignin peroxidase; biosorption and biomineralization), bioengineering strategies (CRISPR/Cas editing, artificial consortia), process intensification (immobilized-laccase reactors; whole-cell formats), and applications across textile dye effluents, petroleum-impacted soils/sediments, heavy-metal bearing wastewaters/soils, and polymer-rich wastes. Emerging evidence shows robust lab and mesocosm performance like rapid dye decolorization in fungal cartridge systems, significant alteration of petroleum (saturate, aromatic, resin and asphaltene-SARA) fractions under estuarine salinities, and high-capacity metal biosorption, while systematic verification for plastics remains a priority. Fungi sustainability assessments identify life-cycle hot spots in enzyme production and immobilization supports; techno-economic analyses suggest feasibility pathways when biocatalyst durability and reuse are optimized. This review also delves into regulatory frameworks for contained use and deliberate environmental release of engineered fungi, shaping the near-term deployments toward contained bioreactors. It concludes by projecting the combination of bioengineering (strain/secretome control), reactorization (immobilized catalysts, modular beds), and standardized metrics (toxicity, mass balance, life-cycle assessment-LCA/techno-economic analysis-TEA) for accelerating the transition of mycoremediation from promising prototypes to field-validated, scalable technologies for industrial waste treatment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108834"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surfactants as process intensifiers in lignocellulosic sugar-platform biorefineries: Mechanistic insights and bioprocess implications","authors":"Xiaoxiao Jiang ,&nbsp;Yujie Wang ,&nbsp;Zhanyu Wang ,&nbsp;Xu Yang ,&nbsp;Yuguang Mu ,&nbsp;Rui Zhai ,&nbsp;Tao Wei ,&nbsp;Mingjie Jin","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108837","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108837","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass, stemming from its complex cellulose-hemicellulose-lignin matrix, remains the primary techno-economic bottleneck in sugar-platform biorefineries. Surfactants have emerged as versatile process-intensifying agents capable of overcoming these interfacial and chemical barriers. While previous reviews have largely focused on macroscopic yield improvements, a critical synthesis elucidating the molecular-level surfactant-biomass-enzyme interplay is lacking. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of surfactant-mediated mechanisms across both pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Uniquely, we highlight the role of surfactants beyond physical dominance, detailing their capacity to induce in-situ chemical modifications of lignin during pretreatment. Mechanisms such as surfactant grafting via α-etherification, phenolic hydroxyl blocking, and C5 position stabilization are critically examined for their roles in preventing lignin condensation and mitigating downstream enzyme inhibition. Furthermore, we elucidate how surfactants modulate interfacial phenomena during hydrolysis, from shielding non-productive lignin adsorption sites to stabilizing enzyme conformation against shear and thermal stresses. Finally, the review outlines a roadmap for transitioning from empirical screening to the rational design of sustainable, multi-functional surfactants, emphasizing their integration into closed-loop biorefinery processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108837"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146130987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metabolomics applications in lactic acid bacteria: Identification, classification, and functional analysis","authors":"Lixia Zhao ,&nbsp;Wenjun Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108838","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108838","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) exhibit a limited correlation between genomic attributes and expressed metabolic traits, with their metabolic profiles being strongly influenced by ecological and environmental conditions. Recent advances in metabolomics have enabled high-resolution profiling of LAB-specific metabolic fingerprints and bioactive compounds. Nevertheless, challenges such as metabolite instability, incomplete annotation of LAB-derived metabolites, and environmental interference within complex fermentation matrices continue to hinder data standardization, reproducibility, and mechanistic interpretation.</div></div><div><h3>Scope and approach</h3><div>This review synthesizes recent advances in LAB metabolomics, highlighting how state-of-the-art analytical platforms, in combination with single-cell and metabolic flux-based approaches, improve strain identification, metabolic phenotyping, and functional metabolite discovery. It further addresses LAB-specific methodological challenges and observed discordance between phylogenetic relationships and metabolomic phenotypes, and discusses how the integration of metabolomics with genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) and multi-omics frameworks can improve functional prediction and provide deeper mechanistic insights.</div></div><div><h3>Key findings and conclusions</h3><div>Overall, the integration of metabolomics is transforming functional studies in LAB by enabling strain-specific functional differentiation and the direct inference of adaptive traits from metabolic phenotypes. As metabolomics increasingly integrates with multi-omics datasets, GSMMs, and experimental validation approaches, a more unified framework for LAB functional analysis is emerging. This integrated approach provides a robust foundation for mechanistic elucidation, functional strain selection, and targeted applications in fermented food systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108838"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 in computer-aided engineering of microbial synthesis and nutritional functions of fucosylated oligosaccharides","authors":"Jingyu Sun ,&nbsp;Yinan Lin ,&nbsp;Zhoupei Zou ,&nbsp;Jingyi Liu ,&nbsp;Zhengxin Chen ,&nbsp;Yuxi Wen ,&nbsp;Silu Li ,&nbsp;Meijia He ,&nbsp;Yufan Liu ,&nbsp;Yihan Chen ,&nbsp;Chao Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108849","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108849","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fucosylated oligosaccharides are critical components of human milk, playing essential roles in infant health through prebiotic and pathogens-blocking properties. It is challenge to achieve large-scale extraction from natural sources. Chemical and enzymatic synthesis methods are also costly. In view of this, microbial production has emerged as a promising alternative. This approach primarily relies on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies to construct engineered microbial strains, aiming to achieve the purpose of efficiently producing target oligosaccharides. To improve the biosynthesis yield, increasing fucosyltransferases activities and supplying sufficient precursors (<em>e.g.</em>, GDP-_L-fucose) are the two main strategies to consider. What's more, rational design and virtual screening can be applied in selecting suitable fucosyltransferases or regulatory motifs to facilitate fucosylated oligosaccharides industrial application. Combining bioinformatic approaches with synthetic biological methods offers a powerful strategy to enable its precise and scalable production. This review gives a comprehensive overview of fucosylated oligosaccharides, summarizing recent advances in microbial biosynthesis and the potential of computer-aided production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108849"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146777776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advances and challenges in enzymatic rubber degradation: Exploring genetic, molecular, and biotechnological aspects","authors":"Rodrigo Andler ,&nbsp;Daisuke Kasai","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108811","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108811","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rubber waste is one of the most persistent solid wastes of our times, mostly represented by end-of-life tires. While the biological origin of natural rubber makes it biodegradable, many tire components are not, and they make enzymatic attack by microorganisms extremely difficult. Despite the great multi-enzymatic catabolic capacity of various bacteria and fungi, there are currently no organisms or enzymes capable of effectively degrading vulcanized tire waste. However, biotechnological advances in enzymatic rubber degradation processes are opening new opportunities. The diversity of rubber oxygenases, the transcriptional regulation of their corresponding genes, and the downstream oxidation of oligo-isoprene aldehydes are also discussed in this review. This biotransformation is positioned as a potential enzymatic upcycling of rubber wastes. Although there have been significant advances at the molecular and bioprocess levels, there are several obstacles that must be solved to propose an efficient and scalable process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108811"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146033200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Expanding biotechnological applications of Yarrowia lipolytica: Key advances in the past decade","authors":"Benedict Ryan Lukito ,&nbsp;Naazneen Sofeo ,&nbsp;Hui Jean Lim ,&nbsp;Muhammad Harith bin Mohammad Taufik ,&nbsp;Prakash Arumugam ,&nbsp;Aiqun Yu ,&nbsp;Adison Wong","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108835","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108835","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Yarrowia lipolytica</em> is a non-conventional yeast with innate oleaginous metabolism and unusual tolerance for hydrophobic substrates, positioning it as a prime chassis for waste-enabled precision fermentation. In this review, we consolidate advances associated with Yarrowia over the past decade into a coherent, trait-centered framework that links biological capabilities to manufacturing performance. We studied genetic toolkits, adaptive laboratory evolution and mating/fusion for strain hardening and phenotype expansion, and combinatorial metabolic engineering strategies (push-pull-block lipid routing, stage- and compartment-specific expression, export engineering) that together improved production titer, rate, and yield across various scales. By organizing metabolic products based on core pathways, namely, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, mevalonate pathway, pentose phosphate pathway, and fatty acid biosynthesis, and pairing each class with the specific chassis edits that enabled leading titers, we provide actionable guidance for target selection and de-risked development. Finally, we propose a roadmap leveraging emerging approaches, AI-guided design, intensified bioprocessing, and precision co-cultures, as key enablers of a scalable, circular bioeconomy with Y. lipolytica as a platform strain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108835"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146134405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A unified survey on drug-target interaction and binding affinity prediction: Models, representations, and challenges","authors":"Yike Wang ,&nbsp;Jingwei Lv ,&nbsp;Yan Xia ,&nbsp;Junlin Xu ,&nbsp;Yajie Meng ,&nbsp;Feifei Cui ,&nbsp;Leyi Wei ,&nbsp;Quan Zou ,&nbsp;Zilong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108843","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108843","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drug discovery is a complex and systematic process aimed at finding new treatment methods that can prevent or treat specific diseases. Accurately predicting the interaction and binding affinity between drugs and targets is one of the key steps in modern drug development. Although traditional experimental methods are accurate, they are difficult to meet the efficiency requirements of current drug development due to high costs, low throughput, and high failure rates. In contrast, computational prediction methods are gradually becoming an indispensable auxiliary tool that can not only significantly shorten the research and development cycle and reduce experimental costs, but also improve the success rate of candidate drug screening. This review focuses on the research of drug-target interaction (DTI) and drug-target binding affinity (DTA), and systematically reviews the relevant research progress. Distinct from existing reviews, we treat large pre-trained model-based approaches as an independent paradigm, rather than subsuming them under conventional sequence- or structure-based models. The article first outlines commonly used resources and methods from the perspective of data and representation, and the computational definition of drug target prediction problem was clarified. On this basis, we have summarized the development path of computational models, from early similarity and feature driven models, to matrix decomposition, network analysis, sequence and structure modeling, and then to the emergence of large-scale pre-trained models in recent years, forming a relatively complete technological evolution path. The article also summarizes the experience at the experimental level, such as the selection of evaluation indicators, handling of cold start scenarios, design of case studies, and analysis of model interpretability. Finally, we synthesize key challenges and identify several directions for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108843"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146197109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modulation of Clostridioides difficile virulence by metabolites derived from probiotic consortia and genetically edited strains","authors":"Luana Macedo Nogueira ,&nbsp;Eduardo César Meurer ,&nbsp;Marcos Pileggi","doi":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108818","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biotechadv.2026.108818","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Clostridioides difficile</em> infection (CDI) continues to pose a significant clinical and biotechnological challenge, primarily driven by antimicrobial resistance and frequent recurrence. Emerging strategies are shifting the therapeutic focus from pathobiont eradication to virulence suppression, achieved by targeting the key metabolic and regulatory networks that underpin <em>C. difficile</em> pathogenicity in the gut. This review synthesizes multi-omic data demonstrating that a synergistic approach—restoring secondary bile acid metabolism (through the bai operon), boosting short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, and disrupting <em>quorum-sensing</em> systems (e.g., <em>luxS</em>, agr)—can collectively suppress toxin expression, biofilm formation, and spore germination. We further examine how synthetic biology and metabolic engineering are paving the way for next-generation solutions, including engineered probiotics, designer microbial consortia, and live biotherapeutic products endowed with programmable <em>quorum quenching</em> capabilities and optimized metabolic outputs. The integration of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, with computational modeling, now enables the predictive design and industrially scalable production of these microbiome-based interventions. Together, these advances mark a pivotal transition from empirical probiotic use to the era of precision, mechanism-driven microbiome therapeutics designed to achieve durable control of CDI recurrence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8946,"journal":{"name":"Biotechnology advances","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 108818"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146110778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}