Beyond natural: synthetic expansions of botanical form and function

Powered by developments that enabled genome-scale investigations, systems biology emerged as a field aiming to understand how phenotypes emerge from network functions. These advances fuelled a new engineering discipline focussed on synthetic reconstructions of complex biological systems with the goa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The New phytologist 2020-07, Vol.227 (2), p.295-310
Main Author: Patron, Nicola J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bioengineering
Biology
Biotechnology
Cloning
Engineering
Gene regulation
Genetic Engineering
Genomes
Mathematical models
metabolic engineering
Metabolism
Molecular biology
Nonlinear systems
Nonlinearity
Phenotypes
plant biotechnology
plant synthetic biology
Plants - genetics
protein engineering
Review
Skills
Statistical models
Stochasticity
Synthetic Biology
Systems Biology
Tansley Review
Tansley reviews
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Summary:Powered by developments that enabled genome-scale investigations, systems biology emerged as a field aiming to understand how phenotypes emerge from network functions. These advances fuelled a new engineering discipline focussed on synthetic reconstructions of complex biological systems with the goal of predictable rational design and control. Initially, progress in the nascent field of synthetic biology was slow due to the ad hoc nature of molecular biology methods such as cloning. The application of engineering principles such as standardisation, together with several key technical advances, enabled a revolution in the speed and accuracy of genetic manipulation. Combined with mathematical and statistical modelling, this has improved the predictability of engineering biological systems of which nonlinearity and stochasticity are intrinsic features leading to remarkable achievements in biotechnology as well as novel insights into biological function. In the past decade, there has been slow but steady progress in establishing foundations for synthetic biology in plant systems. Recently, this has enabled model-informed rational design to be successfully applied to the engineering of plant gene regulation and metabolism. Synthetic biology is now poised to transform the potential of plant biotechnology. However, reaching full potential will require conscious adjustments to the skillsets and mind sets of plant scientists.
ISSN:0028-646X
1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.16562