Synthetic Biology of Thermophiles: Taking Bioengineering to the Extremes?

Synthetic biology applications rely on a well-characterized set of microbial strains, with an established toolbox molecular methods for their genetic manipulation. Since there are no thermophiles such attributes, most biotechnology and synthetic studies use organisms that grow in the mesophilic temperature range. As result, thermophiles, heterogenous group microbes thrive at high (>50 °C) temperatures, largely overlooked, respect to biotechnological potential, even though they share several favorable traits. Thermophilic bacteria tend higher rates compared counterparts, while growth has lower cooling requirements is less prone contamination. Over last few years, been renewed interest developing tools thermophile bioengineering. In this perspective, we explain why it good idea invest time effort into thermophilic direction, which state art, think implementation platform—a thermochassis—will take extremes.