Sigma Factor Modulation for Cyanobacterial Metabolic Engineering.

Amit Srivastava, Rajeev K Varshney, Pratyoosh Shukla

Trends in microbiology 2021 Mar

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Sigma (σ) factors are key regulatory proteins that control the transcription initiation in prokaryotes. In response to environmental or developmental cues, σ factors initiate the transcription of necessary genes responsible for maintaining a life-sustaining metabolic balance. Due to the significant role of σ factors in bacterial metabolism, their rational engineering for commercial metabolite production in photoautotrophic, cyanobacterial cells is a desirable venture. As cyanobacterial genomes typically encode multiple σ factors, effective execution of metabolic engineering efforts largely relies on uncovering the complicated gene regulatory network and further characterization of the members of σ factor regulatory circuits. This review outlines the prospects of σ factor in metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria, summarizes the challenges in the path towards an efficient strain construction and highlights the genomic context of putative regulators of cyanobacterial σ factors. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Amit Srivastava, Rajeev K Varshney, Pratyoosh Shukla. Sigma Factor Modulation for Cyanobacterial Metabolic Engineering. Trends in microbiology. 2021 Mar;29(3):266-277