Engineering ecosystems and synthetic ecologies (original) (raw)
* Corresponding authors
a Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA
b Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
c Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
E-mail: harris.wang@wyss.harvard.edu
d Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Abstract
Microbial ecosystems play an important role in nature. Engineering these systems for industrial, medical, or biotechnological purposes are important pursuits for synthetic biologists and biological engineers moving forward. Here we provide a review of recent progress in engineering natural and synthetic microbial ecosystems. We highlight important forward engineering design principles, theoretical and quantitative models, new experimental and manipulation tools, and possible applications of microbial ecosystem engineering. We argue that simply engineering individual microbes will lead to fragile homogenous populations that are difficult to sustain, especially in highly heterogeneous and unpredictable environments. Instead, engineered microbial ecosystems are likely to be more robust and able to achieve complex tasks at the spatial and temporal resolution needed for truly programmable biology.
- This article is part of the themed collection:Molecular BioSystems Emerging Investigators 2012
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Article information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2MB25133G
Article type
Review Article
Submitted
04 Apr 2012
Accepted
18 May 2012
First published
22 May 2012
Download Citation
Mol. BioSyst., 2012,8, 2470-2483
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Engineering ecosystems and synthetic ecologies
M. T. Mee and H. H. Wang,Mol. BioSyst., 2012, 8, 2470DOI: 10.1039/C2MB25133G
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