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Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert

Synthetic biology aims at translating the methods and strategies from engineering into biology in order to streamline the design and construction of biological devices through standardized parts. Modular synthetic biology devices are designed by means of an adequate elimination of cross-talk that ma...

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Autores principales: Trosset, Jean-Yves, Carbonell, Pablo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4090895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25022769
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2013.00011
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author Trosset, Jean-Yves
Carbonell, Pablo
author_facet Trosset, Jean-Yves
Carbonell, Pablo
author_sort Trosset, Jean-Yves
collection PubMed
description Synthetic biology aims at translating the methods and strategies from engineering into biology in order to streamline the design and construction of biological devices through standardized parts. Modular synthetic biology devices are designed by means of an adequate elimination of cross-talk that makes circuits orthogonal and specific. To that end, synthetic constructs need to be adequately optimized through in silico modeling by choosing the right complement of genetic parts and by experimental tuning through directed evolution and craftsmanship. In this review, we consider an additional and complementary tool available to the synthetic biologist for innovative design and successful construction of desired circuit functionalities: biological synergies. Synergy is a prevalent emergent property in biological systems that arises from the concerted action of multiple factors producing an amplification or cancelation effect compared with individual actions alone. Synergies appear in domains as diverse as those involved in chemical and protein activity, polypharmacology, and metabolic pathway complementarity. In conventional synthetic biology designs, synergistic cross-talk between parts and modules is generally attenuated in order to verify their orthogonality. Synergistic interactions, however, can induce emergent behavior that might prove useful for synthetic biology applications, like in functional circuit design, multi-drug treatment, or in sensing and delivery devices. Synergistic design principles are therefore complementary to those coming from orthogonal design and may provide added value to synthetic biology applications. The appropriate modeling, characterization, and design of synergies between biological parts and units will allow the discovery of yet unforeseeable, novel synthetic biology applications.
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spelling pubmed-40908952014-07-14 Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert Trosset, Jean-Yves Carbonell, Pablo Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology Synthetic biology aims at translating the methods and strategies from engineering into biology in order to streamline the design and construction of biological devices through standardized parts. Modular synthetic biology devices are designed by means of an adequate elimination of cross-talk that makes circuits orthogonal and specific. To that end, synthetic constructs need to be adequately optimized through in silico modeling by choosing the right complement of genetic parts and by experimental tuning through directed evolution and craftsmanship. In this review, we consider an additional and complementary tool available to the synthetic biologist for innovative design and successful construction of desired circuit functionalities: biological synergies. Synergy is a prevalent emergent property in biological systems that arises from the concerted action of multiple factors producing an amplification or cancelation effect compared with individual actions alone. Synergies appear in domains as diverse as those involved in chemical and protein activity, polypharmacology, and metabolic pathway complementarity. In conventional synthetic biology designs, synergistic cross-talk between parts and modules is generally attenuated in order to verify their orthogonality. Synergistic interactions, however, can induce emergent behavior that might prove useful for synthetic biology applications, like in functional circuit design, multi-drug treatment, or in sensing and delivery devices. Synergistic design principles are therefore complementary to those coming from orthogonal design and may provide added value to synthetic biology applications. The appropriate modeling, characterization, and design of synergies between biological parts and units will allow the discovery of yet unforeseeable, novel synthetic biology applications. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4090895/ /pubmed/25022769 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2013.00011 Text en Copyright © 2013 Trosset and Carbonell. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Trosset, Jean-Yves
Carbonell, Pablo
Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title_full Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title_fullStr Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title_full_unstemmed Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title_short Synergistic Synthetic Biology: Units in Concert
title_sort synergistic synthetic biology: units in concert
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4090895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25022769
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2013.00011
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