Abstract
The ability to go from a digitized DNA sequence to a predictable biological function is central to synthetic biology. Genome engineering tools facilitate rewriting and implementation of engineered DNA sequences. Recent development of new programmable tools to reengineer genomes has spurred myriad advances in synthetic biology. Tools such as clustered regularly interspace short palindromic repeats enable RNA-guided rational redesign of organisms and implementation of synthetic gene systems. New directed evolution methods generate organisms with radically restructured genomes. These restructured organisms have useful new phenotypes for biotechnology, such as bacteriophage resistance and increased genetic stability. Advanced DNA synthesis and assembly methods have also enabled the construction of fully synthetic organisms, such as J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI)-syn 3.0. Here we summarize the recent advances in programmable genome engineering tools.
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Acknowledgements
Work by the Xiao Wang laboratory has been supported by National Institutes of Health Grant GM106081.
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Xiao Wang is an associate professor in Biomedical Engineering at Arizona State University, USA. He received his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. As the Principal Investigator of Systems and Synthetic Biology research group, he is interested in using both forward (synthetic biology) and reverse (systems biology) engineering approaches to understand biology. Specific research topics include engineering synthetic multistable gene networks, systems biology research on small network motifs with feedbacks, understanding the role of noise in cell differentiation and development, and analyzing molecular evolution.
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Standage-Beier, K., Wang, X. Genome reprogramming for synthetic biology. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 11, 37–45 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-017-1618-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-017-1618-2