Morphology engineering facilitates constructing efficient cell factories.

The utilization of microbial cell factories for industrial chemical production from renewable feedstocks provides a promising strategy for achieving sustainable biomanufacturing. However, cellular morphology significantly affects the efficacy of microbial cells as production platforms. Morphology engineering aims to "harnessing production through morphology" by reprogramming cellular architecture across multiple scales, thereby unlocking cellular potential to develop high-performance microbial cell factories. This review summarizes the mechanisms for maintaining cell morphology in rod-shaped bacteria and yeasts. Subsequently, we analyze current three main applications of morphology engineering in optimizing microbial cell factories. By increasing the length and width of short rod-shaped bacteria, the cell volume is increased to promote the accumulation of intracellular products. By reducing the size of the mycelial globules of actinomycetes, nutrient absorption is promoted to increase the yield of natural products. By increasing the area of yeast organelles and cell membranes, the yield of terpene products is enhanced. Furthermore, the current limitations of morphology engineering and its future development directions are proposed. This provides theoretical frameworks and technical references for promoting the development of morphology engineering.

Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.