ABSTRACT
There are two major challenges that biocatalyst-based industries often face. First, the reaction pathways may involve volatile, unstable, or toxic intermediates. Secondly, the reacting enzymes sometimes encounter extreme environments. Both the cases may hinder successful enzymatic catalysis, which decreases the overall reaction rate and thereby reduce the turnover. Encapsulation could be a useful strategy in order to protect enzymes from harsh environmental impact and limit the diffusion of volatile and/or toxic intermediate(s). In nature, cells often alleviate these issues by encapsulating reacting partners in closed container. The process of encapsulation enhances overall kinetics by sequestering toxic or volatile metabolic intermediates and minimizes cellular injury and/or loss of essential carbon. A distinct example of this approach is found in organelles of eukaryotes; whereas in bacteria, this strategy is mediated through the deployment of microcompartments (MCPS). Bacterial MCPs are proteinaceous complexes composed of selectively-porous shells that encase a specific metabolic process. The use of MCPs have great prospect compared to liposome and other nano-compartments of similar class in biotechnology and synthetic biology applications because of their unmatched versatility in terms of modulating substrate access, the ability to encapsulate diverse biochemical cargos and their ease of genetic modification. These intriguing features of MCPs have attracted considerable interest in biocatalyst-based industries. A recent study demonstrates that MCPs shells are robust and protective against proteolysis, oxidative stress, and temperature. Therefore, MCPs have great 298promise to serve as molecular chambers in terms of cargo delivery in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this chapter, we focus on engineering approaches undertaken to aim to repurpose MCPs for several biotechnological perspectives.
