Strain engineering of Aspergillus species for industrial enzymes bioproduction: a comprehensive review.
14 affiliations
- 1Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- 2Key Laboratory of Active Proteins and Peptides Green Biomanufacturing of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- 3Foshan Haitian Flavoring & Food Co., Ltd, Foshan, 528000, China.
- 4Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Biofermentation Technology Enterprise in Flavoring & Food, Foshan, 528500, China.
- 5Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
- 6Key Laboratory of Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
- 7Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
- 8State Key Laboratory of Green Biomanufacturing, Beijing, 100084, China.
- 9Beijing Key Laboratory of Recombinant Proteins and Biomanufacturing, Beijing, 100084, China.
- 10Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China. [email protected].
- 11Key Laboratory of Active Proteins and Peptides Green Biomanufacturing of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China. [email protected].
- 12Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. [email protected].
- 13Key Laboratory of Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. [email protected].
- 14Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. [email protected].
Abstract
Filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, because of their exceptional secretory capacity and metabolic versatility have been extensively applied in traditional food fermentation and industrial biotechnology for production of diverse bioproducts. Their history of domestication and industrial application has enabled major progress in enzyme production; however, challenges associated with the filamentous growth and strain engineering for future biomanufacturing development still remain. This review summarizes the advances across the spectrum of strain-improvement methodologies, from classical mutagenesis, protoplast fusion, genome shuffling, and adaptive laboratory evolution to the modern era of CRISPR enabled genome editing, synthetic biology, and systems-level metabolic engineering. Previous reviews have primarily focused on individual Aspergillus species, specific industrial products or particular strain improvement approaches. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of classical and modern strain engineering technologies and industrial scale up across a wide range of Aspergillus species for industrial enzyme production. In particular, emerging non-GMO evolution tools such as atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis, and modern molecular biotechnology coupled with microdroplet-based ultrahigh-throughput screening, now allow the researchers to generate and screen a large number of Aspergillus species mutants with single-cell precision. The discovery of high-performance strains with enhanced secretion, stress tolerance, substrate utilization, and favorable enzymatic profiles for food and bioprocessing applications has been accelerated by the strain innovations. Collectively, these advances establish A. oryzae and the related species as increasingly reliable, scalable, and programmable hosts that can meet the biomanufacturing requirements of future circular and sustainable bioeconomies.
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BibTeX
@article{ullah2026strain,
title = {{Strain engineering of Aspergillus species for industrial enzymes bioproduction: a comprehensive review.}},
author = {Irfan Ullah and Zhihui Zhang and Dezhi Geng and Qiyang Zhou and Yahong Zou and Bing Xu and Chong Zhang and Xin-Hui Xing},
journal = {Advanced biotechnology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s44307-026-00140-9},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42961608},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Strain engineering of Aspergillus species for industrial enzymes bioproduction: a comprehensive review.
AU - Irfan Ullah
AU - Zhihui Zhang
AU - Dezhi Geng
AU - Qiyang Zhou
AU - Yahong Zou
AU - Bing Xu
AU - Chong Zhang
AU - Xin-Hui Xing
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Advanced biotechnology
DO - 10.1007/s44307-026-00140-9
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42961608
AB - Filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, because of their exceptional secretory capacity and metabolic versatility have been extensively applied in traditional food fermentation and industrial biotechnology for production of diverse bioproducts. Their history of domestication and industrial application has enabled major progress in enzyme production; however, challenges associated with the filamentous growth and strain engineering for future biomanufacturing development still remain. This review summarizes the advances across the spectrum of strain-improvement methodologies, from classical mutagenesis, protoplast fusion, genome shuffling, and adaptive laboratory evolution to the modern era of CRISPR enabled genome editing, synthetic biology, and systems-level metabolic engineering. Previous reviews have primarily focused on individual Aspergillus species, specific industrial products or particular strain improvement approaches. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of classical and modern strain engineering technologies and industrial scale up across a wide range of Aspergillus species for industrial enzyme production. In particular, emerging non-GMO evolution tools such as atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis, and modern molecular biotechnology coupled with microdroplet-based ultrahigh-throughput screening, now allow the researchers to generate and screen a large number of Aspergillus species mutants with single-cell precision. The discovery of high-performance strains with enhanced secretion, stress tolerance, substrate utilization, and favorable enzymatic profiles for food and bioprocessing applications has been accelerated by the strain innovations. Collectively, these advances establish A. oryzae and the related species as increasingly reliable, scalable, and programmable hosts that can meet the biomanufacturing requirements of future circular and sustainable bioeconomies.
SN - 2948-2801
ER -