Integrative metabolic engineering

Abstract

Recent advances in experimental and computational synthetic biology are extremely useful for achieving metabolic engineering objectives. The integration of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering within an iterative design-build-test framework will improve the practice of metabolic engineering by relying more on efficient design strategies. Computational tools that aid in the design and in silico simulation of metabolic pathways are especially useful. However, software helpful for constructing, implementing, measuring and characterizing engineered pathways and networks should not be overlooked. In this review, we highlight computational synthetic biology tools relevant to metabolic engineering, organized in the context of the design-build-test cycle.

Keywords

• metabolic engineering
• synthetic biology
• computational biology
• in silico