Establishing Halomonas as a chassis for industrial biotechnology: advances in synthetic biology tool development and metabolic engineering strategies
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Coimbra, Andre AB
Prakash, Satya
Jimenez, Jose I
Rios-Solis, Leonardo
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Halomonas species have recently emerged as promising chassis organisms for next-generation industrial biotechnology, due to their ability to thrive under high-salt conditions, where most microorganisms cannot survive. This feature minimizes contamination risks, thus enabling cultivation under open, unsterile conditions. In addition, many Halomonas species naturally produce large amounts of the bioplastic polyhydroxybutyrate and the high-value osmolyte ectoine.
Main text
This review explores the development of genetic manipulation tools and their pivotal role in establishing the genus Halomonas as an industrial chassis. Key additions to the synthetic biology toolbox, including cloning vectors, genetic parts, and genome editing systems are highlighted, along with challenges faced for their adoption, such as difficulties in transformation. In addition, we showcase how these tools have been employed for the development of more robust, high-producing strains through metabolic engineering, as well as for expanding the portfolio of target metabolites produced by Halomonas.
Conclusion
Recent developments in synthetic biology tools and metabolic engineering highlighted in this review underscore the potential of Halomonas for large scale metabolite production and provide a promising outlook towards their role as a microbial chassis in industrial biotechnology.
Halomonas species have recently emerged as promising chassis organisms for next-generation industrial biotechnology, due to their ability to thrive under high-salt conditions, where most microorganisms cannot survive. This feature minimizes contamination risks, thus enabling cultivation under open, unsterile conditions. In addition, many Halomonas species naturally produce large amounts of the bioplastic polyhydroxybutyrate and the high-value osmolyte ectoine.
Main text
This review explores the development of genetic manipulation tools and their pivotal role in establishing the genus Halomonas as an industrial chassis. Key additions to the synthetic biology toolbox, including cloning vectors, genetic parts, and genome editing systems are highlighted, along with challenges faced for their adoption, such as difficulties in transformation. In addition, we showcase how these tools have been employed for the development of more robust, high-producing strains through metabolic engineering, as well as for expanding the portfolio of target metabolites produced by Halomonas.
Conclusion
Recent developments in synthetic biology tools and metabolic engineering highlighted in this review underscore the potential of Halomonas for large scale metabolite production and provide a promising outlook towards their role as a microbial chassis in industrial biotechnology.
Date Issued
2025-06-12
Date Acceptance
2025-05-29
Citation
Microbial Cell Factories, 2025, 24
ISSN
1475-2859
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
Microbial Cell Factories
Volume
24
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40506695
PII: 10.1186/s12934-025-02757-2
Subjects
BATCH CULTURE
Bioplastic
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
BLUEPHAGENESIS
BOLIVIENSIS LC1
Ectoine, chassis
ESCHERICHIA-COLI
GENE-EXPRESSION
GENOME
Halomonas
Industrial biotechnology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Metabolic engineering
Non-sterile bioprocessing
PLASMID
POLY(3-HYDROXYBUTYRATE) PRODUCTION
POLY(BETA-HYDROXYBUTYRATE) PRODUCTION
Science & Technology
SP KM-1
Synthetic biology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
133
Date Publish Online
2025-06-12