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Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma
Ecosystems are complex networks of interacting individuals co-evolving with their environment. As such, changes to an interaction can influence the whole ecosystem. However, to predict the outcome of these changes, considerable understanding of processes driving the system is required. Synthetic bio...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6463046/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30696090 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life9010015 |
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author | Denton, Jai A. Gokhale, Chaitanya S. |
author_facet | Denton, Jai A. Gokhale, Chaitanya S. |
author_sort | Denton, Jai A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ecosystems are complex networks of interacting individuals co-evolving with their environment. As such, changes to an interaction can influence the whole ecosystem. However, to predict the outcome of these changes, considerable understanding of processes driving the system is required. Synthetic biology provides powerful tools to aid this understanding, but these developments also allow us to change specific interactions. Of particular interest is the ecological importance of mutualism, a subset of cooperative interactions. Mutualism occurs when individuals of different species provide a reciprocal fitness benefit. We review available experimental techniques of synthetic biology focused on engineered synthetic mutualistic systems. Components of these systems have defined interactions that can be altered to model naturally occurring relationships. Integrations between experimental systems and theoretical models, each informing the use or development of the other, allow predictions to be made about the nature of complex relationships. The predictions range from stability of microbial communities in extreme environments to the collapse of ecosystems due to dangerous levels of human intervention. With such caveats, we evaluate the promise of synthetic biology from the perspective of ethics and laws regarding biological alterations, whether on Earth or beyond. Just because we are able to change something, should we? |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6463046 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64630462019-04-22 Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma Denton, Jai A. Gokhale, Chaitanya S. Life (Basel) Review Ecosystems are complex networks of interacting individuals co-evolving with their environment. As such, changes to an interaction can influence the whole ecosystem. However, to predict the outcome of these changes, considerable understanding of processes driving the system is required. Synthetic biology provides powerful tools to aid this understanding, but these developments also allow us to change specific interactions. Of particular interest is the ecological importance of mutualism, a subset of cooperative interactions. Mutualism occurs when individuals of different species provide a reciprocal fitness benefit. We review available experimental techniques of synthetic biology focused on engineered synthetic mutualistic systems. Components of these systems have defined interactions that can be altered to model naturally occurring relationships. Integrations between experimental systems and theoretical models, each informing the use or development of the other, allow predictions to be made about the nature of complex relationships. The predictions range from stability of microbial communities in extreme environments to the collapse of ecosystems due to dangerous levels of human intervention. With such caveats, we evaluate the promise of synthetic biology from the perspective of ethics and laws regarding biological alterations, whether on Earth or beyond. Just because we are able to change something, should we? MDPI 2019-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6463046/ /pubmed/30696090 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life9010015 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Denton, Jai A. Gokhale, Chaitanya S. Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title | Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title_full | Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title_fullStr | Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title_full_unstemmed | Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title_short | Synthetic Mutualism and the Intervention Dilemma |
title_sort | synthetic mutualism and the intervention dilemma |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6463046/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30696090 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life9010015 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT dentonjaia syntheticmutualismandtheinterventiondilemma AT gokhalechaitanyas syntheticmutualismandtheinterventiondilemma |