Organization of metabolic processes within the space of a cell is critical for the survival of many organisms. In bacteria, spatial organization is achieved via proteinaceous organelles called bacterial microcompartments, which encapsulate pathway enzymes, substrates, and co-factors to drive the safe and efficient metabolism of niche carbon sources. Microcompartments are self-assembled from shell proteins that encapsulate a core comprising various enzymes. This review discusses how recent advances in understanding microcompartment structure and assembly have informed engineering efforts to repurpose compartments and compartment-based structures for non-native functions. These advances, both in understanding of the native structure and function of compartments, as well as in the engineering of new functions, will pave the way for the use of these structures in bacterial cell factories.

细胞空间内代谢过程的组织对于许多生物体的生存至关重要。在细菌中，空间组织是通过称为细菌微室的蛋白质细胞器实现的，这些细胞器封装了途径酶、底物和辅助因子，以驱动生态位碳源的安全有效代谢。微室由外壳蛋白自组装而成，外壳蛋白封装了包含各种酶的核心。本综述讨论了在理解微隔室结构和组装方面的最新进展如何为工程工作提供信息，以重新利用隔室和基于隔室的结构以实现非本机功能。这些进步，无论是在理解隔间的原生结构和功能方面，还是在新功能的工程方面，