Synthetic Minimal Cells and Their Applications Publisher



Kharrazi AY¹ ; Zare A² ; Chapin N³ ; Ghavami S⁴ ; Pandi A³
Source: New Frontiers and Applications of Synthetic Biology Published:2022

Abstract

For many years synthetic biologists have used model organisms for their research or industrial purposes. Utilizing these organisms advanced the field, yet, there is a huge amount of unnecessary complexity that limits their applications. Hence there is a need to develop synthetic cells with minimal complexity, life-like homeostasis, self-maintenance, evolution, and reproduction. This can be done through two approaches: top-down and bottom-up. In the top-down approach, the complexity of model organisms is reduced by the deletion of unnecessary genes and interspaced regions in their genome. In the bottom-up approach, synthetic cell-like systems are constructed from functional modules. In this chapter, we address these approaches and their limitations and applications. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.