Systems and Synthetic Biology Approaches for Metabolic Engineering of Pseudomonas putida
Pseudomonas putida is increasingly attracting attention as a bacterial host of reference both for basic and applied research. Over the years, this Gram negative soil bacterium has been considered a potential agent for environmental bioremediation of industrial wastes and xenobiotic compounds and also a promising colonizer of the rhizosphere. However, the potential biotechnological applications of P. putida were enormously multiplied by the advent of contemporary synthetic biology which, together with the wealth of information provided by systems level analysis of its genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and fluxome, enabled the implementation of targeted metabolic engineering approaches. This chapter summarizes the main discoveries within this context that mediated the transition of P. putida from its humble origin in the soil to modern biotechnology setups, where it excels in a number of practical applications for which other traditional microbial cell factories cannot be used (e.g. in hosting harsh oxidative reactions for the production of valuable chemicals)