Recent Advances in Synthetic Biology for the Engineering of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a long historical record of usage in many types of food-related bioprocesses, and as LAB have been found to have intrinsic beneficial effects on human health, interest in using LAB as a medical treatment has increased. Moreover, recent advances in synthetic biology have enabled the engineering of so-called “smart” bacteria with the native characteristics of LAB. With various synthetic parts for gene expression, genome editing, and genetic circuits, gene expression can be precisely regulated in LAB. Moreover, LAB have been successfully developed as potential hosts for therapeutics to detect and control specific diseases or to deliver drug molecules. In this review, we outline the recent development of synthetic parts and approaches for the engineering of LAB. We also discuss the potential application of synthetic biology for the utilization of LAB as living therapeutics.