Enhancing bacterial cellulose production with hypoxia-inducible factors

Novel Approaches in Production and Application of Bacterial Cellulose in Food Industries

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a polymer produced by specific species of bacteria, most often by the species Komagataeibacter xylinus and Gluconacetobacter xylinus. BC may be distinguished from other types of cellulose by its origin. It is a kind of cellulose that is highly pure and robust, which is made up of long chains of glucose units that create a 3D network. The production of BC takes place via fermentation. During this process, the bacteria utilize sugar and produce cellulose as a byproduct. BC has been extensively researched for its potential use in the medical industry, food industry, and many other fields. Application includes development of an artificial skin for wound dressing because of its remarkable inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding and thermal and mechanical strength. BC has a large potential to be used in the food industry, where it can be combined with other polysaccharides to be used in food products as additives, edible film/coating, or active food packaging material to prolong the shelf life of the product and reduce the rate of chemical reactions and microbial growth in food products.

Bacterial Cellulose for Scalable and Sustainable Bio-Gels in the Circular Economy

Microbial-derived materials are emerging for applications in biomedicine, sensors, food, cosmetics, construction, and fashion. They offer considerable structural properties and process reproducibility compared to other bio-based materials. However, challenges related to efficient and sustainable large-scale production of microbial-derived materials must be addressed to exploit their potential fully. This review analyzes the synergistic contribution of circular, sustainable, and biotechnological approaches to enhance bacterial cellulose (BC) production and fine-tune its physico-chemical properties. BC was chosen as an ideal example due to its mechanical strength and chemical stability, making it promising for industrial applications. The review discusses upcycling strategies that utilize waste for microbial fermentation, simultaneously boosting BC production. Additionally, biotechnology techniques are identified as key to enhance BC yield and tailor its physico-chemical properties. Among the different areas where cellulose-based materials are employed, BC shows promise for mitigating the environmental impact of the garment industry. The review emphasizes that integrating circular and biotechnological approaches could significantly improve large-scale production and enhance the tunability of BC properties. Additionally, these approaches may simultaneously provide environmental benefits, depending on their future progresses. Future advancements should prioritize circular fermentation and biotechnological techniques to expand the potential of BC for sustainable industrial applications.

Modulating Microbial Materials - Engineering Bacterial Cellulose with Synthetic Biology

The fusion of synthetic biology and materials science offers exciting opportunities to produce sustainable materials that can perform programmed biological functions such as sensing and responding or enhance material properties through biological means. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a unique material for this challenge due to its high-performance material properties and ease of production from culturable microbes. Research in the past decade has focused on expanding the benefits and applications of BC through many approaches. Here, we explore how the current landscape of BC-based biomaterials is being shaped by progress in synthetic biology. As well as discussing how it can aid production of more BC and BC with tailored material properties, we place special emphasis on the potential of using BC for engineered living materials (ELMs); materials of a biological nature designed to carry out specific tasks. We also explore the role of 3D bioprinting being used for BC-based ELMs and highlight specific opportunities that this can bring. As synthetic biology continues to advance, it will drive further innovation in BC-based materials and ELMs, enabling many new applications that can help address problems in the modern world, in both biomedicine and many other application fields.

Biofabrication with microbial cellulose: from bioadaptive designs to living materials

Nanocellulose is not only a renewable material but also brings functions that are opening new technological opportunities. Here we discuss a special subset of this material, in its fibrillated form, which is produced by aerobic microorganisms, namely, bacterial nanocellulose (BNC). BNC offers distinct advantages over plant-derived counterparts, including high purity and high degree of polymerization as well as crystallinity, strength, and water-holding capacity, among others. More remarkably, beyond classical fermentative protocols, it is possible to grow BNC on non-planar interfaces, opening new possibilities in the assembly of advanced bottom-up structures. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in the area of BNC-based biofabrication of three-dimensional (3D) designs by following solid- and soft-material templating. These methods are shown as suitable platforms to achieve bioadaptive constructs comprising highly interlocked biofilms that can be tailored with precise control over nanoscale morphological features. BNC-based biofabrication opens applications that are not possible by using traditional manufacturing routes, including direct ink writing of hydrogels. This review emphasizes the critical contributions of microbiology, colloid and surface science, as well as additive manufacturing in achieving bioadaptive designs from living matter. The future impact of BNC biofabrication is expected to take advantage of material and energy integration, residue utilization, circularity and social latitudes. Leveraging existing infrastructure, the scaleup of biofabrication routes will contribute to a new generation of advanced materials rooted in exciting synergies that combine biology, chemistry, engineering and material sciences.

NIR-triggered bacterial cellulose-based wound dressings for multiple synergistic therapy of infected wound

Skin wounds are repaired by a complex series of events and overlapping phases in which bacterial infection and insufficient angiogenesis at the wound site delay the healing process. Thus, functional wound dressings with enhanced antibacterial activity and angiogenic capacity have attracted attention. Herein, bacterial cellulose (BC)-based dressings were successfully fabricated by functionalization with a polydopamine (PDA) coating and copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS NPs). Under 808 nm laser illumination, the BC/PDA/CuS composite membranes exhibited outstanding adjustable photothermal and photodynamic activities as well as controlled Cu2+ release, endowing the composite membranes with synergetic antibacterial activity. Specially, a bactericidal efficiency of 99.7 % and 88.0 % for Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was achieved after treatment with BC/PDA/CuS5 sample under NIR irradiation (0.8 W/cm2, 10 min), respectively. Moreover, the BC/PDA/CuS5 composite membrane could enhance the angiogenesis due to the released Cu2+. In vivo experiments revealed that the BC/PDA/CuS5 composite membrane dressing could accelerate the wound closure process of the full-thickness skin defects with S. aureus by synergistically reducing inflammation, enhancing collagen deposition, and promoting vascularization under NIR irradiation. Additionally, the BC/PDA/CuS5 composite membrane exhibited high biocompatibility and biosafety. This work offers a new strategy to prepare multifunctional BC-based dressing for clinical wound healing.