Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is a biopolymer that is drawing significant attention for a wide range of applications thanks to its unique structure and excellent properties, such as high purity, mechanical strength, high water holding capacity and biocompatibility. Nevertheless, the biomanufacturing of BNC is hindered due to its low yield, the instability of microbial strains and cost limitations that prevent it from being mass-produced on a large scale. Various approaches have been developed to address these problems by genetically modifying strains and to produce BNC-based biomaterials with added value. These works are summarized and discussed in the present article, which include the overexpression and knockout of genes related and not related with the nanocellulose biosynthetic operon, the application of synthetic biology approaches and CRISPR/Cas techniques to modulate BNC biosynthesis. Further discussion is provided on functionalized BNC-based biomaterials with tailored properties that are incorporated during its biosynthesis using genetically modified strains either in single or co-culture systems ( manufacturing). This novel strategy holds potential to open the road toward cost-effective production processes and to find novel applications in a variety of technology and industrial fields.

中文翻译：

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致力于生物制造具有定制特性的下一代细菌纳米纤维素 (BNC) 材料：基因工程方法综述


细菌纳米纤维素（BNC）是一种生物聚合物，由于其独特的结构和优异的性能，如高纯度、机械强度、高持水能力和生物相容性，在广泛的应用中引起了广泛的关注。然而，BNC的生物制造由于产量低、微生物菌株不稳定以及成本限制而受到阻碍，无法大规模生产。人们已经开发出各种方法来通过基因改造菌株来解决这些问题，并生产具有附加值的基于 BNC 的生物材料。本文对这些工作进行了总结和讨论，包括与纳米纤维素生物合成操纵子相关和无关的基因的过表达和敲除，合成生物学方法和CRISPR/Cas技术在调节BNC生物合成中的应用。进一步讨论了基于 BNC 的功能化生物材料，其具有定制特性，在单一或共培养系统（制造）中使用转基因菌株进行生物合成。这种新颖的策略有可能为具有成本效益的生产工艺开辟道路，并在各种技术和工业领域找到新颖的应用。