Molecular Tools in Synthetic Biology

Topic Introduction

Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a scientific discipline utilizing molecular-biological technologies for the intentional generation of new genetic networks, metabolic traits, signaling pathways, cellular entities, organisms, and even consortia of diverse species. Typically, the molecular parts assembled in genetic constructs for SynBio originate from diverse biological sources, such as viruses, microbes, fungi, plants or animals, leading to newly engineered organisms that do not occur naturally. SynBio also embarks on the development of molecular, chemical and physical frameworks for the creation of artificial life forms that go beyond the limits of Nature and may hold promising capacity for future applications on Earth or even extraterrestrial environments such as during space missions. 

The Topic Collection expects contributions from a wide range of SynBio areas, including those that explore and implement novel molecular tools for demonstrating functionalities in specific microbial or non-microbial species, and across a wider range of taxonomic boundaries. We seek articles that demonstrate a successful employment of new tools in either basic SynBio research and/or in real-world technical applications. Original research and review articles are welcome alike. We also warmly welcome opinion and vision papers. 

Keywords

• Synthetic transcription factors and gene regulatory networks
• Synthetic protein-based control elements
• Optogenetics
• DNA assembly, alternative nucleotides, codon expansion
• Genome editing at multigene level
• Genome minimization
• Synthetic chromosomes, neochromosomes
• Synthetic organelles
• Synthetic multicellularity
• Orthologous systems
• Synthetic biology for non-canonical chassis organisms
• Cell-free technologies
• Tools for bottom-up creation of artificial life forms
• Software tools for synthetic biology
• Use of artificial intelligence in synthetic biology