Bioprospecting microbes and enzymes for the production of pterocarpans and coumestans.

The isoflavonoid derivatives, pterocarpans and coumestans, are explored for multiple clinical applications as osteo-regenerative, neuroprotective and anti-cancer agents. The use of plant-based systems to produce isoflavonoid derivatives is limited due to cost, scalability, and sustainability constraints. Microbial cell factories overcome these limitations in which model organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae offer an efficient platform to produce isoflavonoids. Bioprospecting microbes and enzymes can provide an array of tools to enhance the production of these molecules. Other microbes that naturally produce isoflavonoids present a novel alternative as production chassis and as a source of novel enzymes. Enzyme bioprospecting allows the complete identification of the pterocarpans and coumestans biosynthetic pathway, and the selection of the best enzymes based on activity and docking parameters. These enzymes consolidate an improved biosynthetic pathway for microbial-based production systems. In this review, we report the state-of-the-art for the production of key pterocarpans and coumestans, describing the enzymes already identified and the current gaps. We report available databases and tools for microbial bioprospecting to select the best production chassis. We propose the use of a holistic and multidisciplinary bioprospecting approach as the first step to identify the biosynthetic gaps, select the best microbial chassis, and increase productivity. We propose the use of microalgal species as microbial cell factories to produce pterocarpans and coumestans. The application of bioprospecting tools provides an exciting field to produce plant compounds such as isoflavonoid derivatives, efficiently and sustainably.

CRISPR-Cas systems: ushering in the new genome editing era.

In recent years there has been great progress with the implementation and utilization of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) systems in the world of genetic engineering. Many forms of CRISPR-Cas9 have been developed as genome editing tools and techniques and, most recently, several non-genome editing CRISPR-Cas systems have emerged. Most of the CRISPR-Cas systems have been classified as either Class I or Class II and are further divided among several subtypes within each class. Research teams and companies are currently in dispute over patents for these CRISPR-Cas systems as numerous powerful applications are concurrently under development. This mini review summarizes the appearance of CRISPR-Cas systems with a focus on the predominant CRISPR-Cas9 system as well as the classifications and subtypes for CRISPR-Cas. Non-genome editing uses of CRISPR-Cas are also highlighted and a brief overview of the commercialization of CRISPR is provided.