Current and future modalities of dynamic control in metabolic engineering

Metabolic engineering aims to maximize production of valuable compounds using cells as biological catalysts. When incorporating engineered pathways into host organisms, an inherent conflict is presented between maintenance of cellular health and generation of products. This challenge has been addressed through two main modalities of dynamic control: decoupling growth from production via two-phase fermentations and autoregulation of pathways to optimize product formation. However, dynamic control can offer even greater potential for metabolic engineering through open-loop and closed-loop control modalities of the production phase. Here we review recent applications of dynamic control strategies in metabolic engineering. We then explore the potential of integrating biosensors and computer-assisted feedback control as a promising future modality of dynamic control.