Team
Österreichische
Agentur für Gesundheit und
Ernährungssicherheit GmbH (kurz AGES)
1220 Wien, Spargelfeldstraße 191
Impressum
Herausgeber, Medieninhaber und Hersteller:
Bundesministerium
für Gesundheit, Sektion II
Radetzkystraße 2, 1030 Wien
Für den Inhalt verantwortlich:
Dr.
Ulrich Herzog
Projektleitung und interne Projektkoordination:
Alexandra Ribarits
Autorinnen und Autoren (in alphabetischer Reihenfolge):
Brüller
Werner
Gansberger Markus
Hochegger Rupert
Kuffner
Melanie
Peterseil Verena
Ribarits
Alexandra
Stepanek Walter
Toptischnig
Christina
Widhalm Ingomar
Wögerbauer Markus
ISBN 978-3-902611-84-0
Erscheinungstermin:
November 2014
Zitiervorschlag/Please cite this report as follows:
Ribarits A., Stepanek W., Wögerbauer M., Peterseil V., Kuffner M., Topitschnig C.,
Brüller W., Hochegger R., Gansberger M., Widhalm I. und Leonhardt C. (2014)
Synthetic Biology. Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Wien.
Ribarits A., Stepanek W., Wögerbauer M., Peterseil V., Kuffner M., Topitschnig C.,
Brüller W., Hochegger R., Gansberger M., Widhalm I. und Leonhardt C. (2014)
Synthetic Biology. Federal Ministry of Health, Vienna.
Synthetic Biology | Content
3
Content
Content ................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Zusammenfassung .................................................................................................................................................. 6
Background and aims .............................................................................................................................................. 8
1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 9
1.1
What is synthetic biology? ......................................................................................................................... 9
1.1.1 The scientific landscape of synthetic biology ........................................................................................... 10
2
Definition and delimitation of synthetic biology ..................................................................................... 12
2.1
“Synthetic biology” and “Synthetic genomics” ........................................................................................ 12
2.2
Synthetic biology, systems biology, metabolic engineering and the need to differentiate between the
fields ......................................................................................................................................................... 13
2.2.1 Systems biology ........................................................................................................................................ 14
2.2.2 Metabolic engineering ............................................................................................................................. 14
2.2.3 Synthetic metabolic pathways ................................................................................................................. 15
2.2.4 Is it synthetic biology or still conventional biotechnology? ..................................................................... 16
2.3
Some limits to “bio-part engineering” ..................................................................................................... 16
3
State of the Art ......................................................................................................................................... 18
3.1
Overview of paths to synthetic life .......................................................................................................... 18
3.1.1 Top-down or bottom-up .......................................................................................................................... 18
3.1.2 Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................ 18
3.1.3 Platform cell factories .............................................................................................................................. 19
3.1.4 Cell-free synthetic biology ....................................................................................................................... 20
3.2
Construction of a novel cell...................................................................................................................... 20
3.2.1 Minimal genomes – top-down approach ................................................................................................. 20
3.2.2
De novo construction of a cell – bottom-up approach ............................................................................ 22
3.2.3 Modification on other level than DNA ..................................................................................................... 30
3.3
Building biological systems from parts .................................................................................................... 31
3.3.1 Regulation of gene expression: parts and devices ................................................................................... 31
3.3.2 Genetic devices ........................................................................................................................................ 32
3.3.3 Design and optimisation of synthetic biological systems ........................................................................ 35
3.3.4 Standardisation of genetic parts and modules ........................................................................................ 39
4
Applications of synthetic biology ............................................................................................................. 42
4.1
Synthetic biology in microorganisms ....................................................................................................... 42
4.2
Synthetic biology in other species ........................................................................................................... 43
4.3
Synthetic biology in plants ....................................................................................................................... 43
4.3.1 Assembly of plant pathways in heterologous hosts ................................................................................ 44
4.3.2 Review of existing applications in plant-like systems and higher plants ................................................. 47
4.3.3 Emerging applications .............................................................................................................................. 50
5
Risk assessment and risk management ................................................................................................... 53
5.1
Current risk assessment approaches ....................................................................................................... 53
5.2
Applicability of current approaches on plants created by synthetic genomics ....................................... 54
5.3
Additional aspects in the risk assessment of plants created by synthetic genomics .............................. 55
5.4
Assessment of the practical consequences and risks of a release into the environment of
plants created
by synthetic genomics .............................................................................................................................. 57
5.5
Biosafety considerations on BioBricks™ used for Synthetic Biology ....................................................... 58
5.6
Potential impacts of synthetic biology in relation to biosafety ............................................................... 61
5.6.1 Impact on the ecosystem ......................................................................................................................... 61
5.6.2 Transfer of novel genetic material/DNA to native host organisms ......................................................... 63
5.6.3 Emergence of novel properties ................................................................................................................ 63
6
Discussion ................................................................................................................................................. 65
7
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 69
8
References................................................................................................................................................ 72