Engineering nanoreactors using bacterial microcompartment architectures

•BMCs are natural metabolic modules found in diverse bacterial phyla.•BMCs are proteinaceous organelles that encapsulate enzymes for CO2 fixation or carbon catabolism.•Bioengineering of BMCs enables the production of empty synthetic shells.•Encapsulation of enzymes leads to BMC-based nanoreactors.•BMC-based nanoreactors will be of significant value for synthetic biology.

Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are organelles that encapsulate enzymes involved in CO2 fixation or carbon catabolism in a selectively permeable protein shell. Here, we highlight recent advances in the bioengineering of these protein-based nanoreactors in heterologous systems, including transfer and expression of BMC gene clusters, the production of template empty shells, and the encapsulation of non-native enzymes.

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