Budding yeast as a factory to engineer partial and complete microbial genomes

Yeast cells have long been used as hosts to propagate exogenous DNA. Recent progress in genome editing opens new avenues in synthetic biology. These developments allow the efficient engineering of microbial genomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that can then be rescued to yield modified bacteria/viruses. Recent examples show that the ability to quickly synthesize, assemble and/or modify viral and bacterial genomes may be a critical factor to respond to emerging pathogens. However, this process has some limitations. DNA molecules much larger than two megabase pairs are complex to clone, bacterial genomes have proven difficult to rescue, and the dual-use potential of these technologies must be carefully considered. Regardless, the use of yeast as a factory has enormous appeal for biological applications.
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Highlights • Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a robust and efficient host for cloning microbial genomes. • Recent developments allow the efficient engineering of microbial genomes in yeast that can then be rescued using transplantation/transfection to yield modified bacteria/viruses. • Overcoming bottlenecks is key to expand use of yeast as a factory and to offer new possibilities in the synthetic biology field. • Rapid synthesis, assembly or modification of viral and bacterial genomes may be a critical factor to respond to emerging pathogens.