Towards Engineering Biological Systems in a Broader Context

• Published in: Journal of molecular biology Vol. 428; no. 5; pp. 928 - 944
• Main Authors: Venturelli, Ophelia S., Egbert, Robert G., Arkin, Adam P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 27.02.2016
• Subjects: Adaptation, Biological; Cell Engineering - methods; ecological stability; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Regulatory Networks; Humans; phenotypic diversification; resource allocation; synthetic biology; Synthetic Biology - methods; synthetic ecology; synthetic biology; synthetic ecology; ecological stability; phenotypic diversification; resource allocation
• ISSN: 0022-2836; 1089-8638
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2015.10.025

Significant advances have been made in synthetic biology to program information processing capabilities in cells. While these designs can function predictably in controlled laboratory environments, the reliability of these devices in complex, temporally changing environments has not yet been characterized. As human society faces global challenges in agriculture, human health and energy, synthetic biology should develop predictive design principles for biological systems operating in complex environments. Natural biological systems have evolved mechanisms to overcome innumerable and diverse environmental challenges. Evolutionary design rules should be extracted and adapted to engineer stable and predictable ecological function. We highlight examples of natural biological responses spanning the cellular, population and microbial community levels that show promise in synthetic biology contexts. We argue that synthetic circuits embedded in host organisms or designed ecologies informed by suitable measurement of biotic and abiotic environmental parameters could be used as engineering substrates to achieve target functions in complex environments. Successful implementation of these methods will broaden the context in which synthetic biological systems can be applied to solve important problems. [Display omitted] •Synthetic biology at the cellular and ecological levels holds significant promise to solve imminent global challenges in agriculture, energy and human health.•Engineered biological solutions will need to be designed effectively to survive, grow and function in complex environments beyond the laboratory to achieve these goals.•The engineering design space contains trade-offs among the resource limitations to support cellular fitness, implementation of a desired function and mechanisms to constrain the organism to a desired niche.•Natural biological systems employ multiple strategies at the cellular, population and microbial community levels to continuously adapt to changing environments and to achieve a stable ecological function.•Engineering efforts should aim to extract natural design principles to develop compact and efficient designs that implement functionally equivalent behaviors.