Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to www.nature.com

Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Review Article
  • Published:

Synthetic biology

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 6, pages 533–543 (2005)Cite this article

Key Points

  • Synthetic biology is a growing discipline that has two subfields. One uses unnatural molecules to reproduce emergent behaviors from natural biology, with the goal of creating artificial life. The other seeks interchangeable parts from natural biology to assemble into systems that act unnaturally.

  • Either way, a synthetic goal forces scientists to cross uncharted ground to encounter and solve problems that are not easily encountered through analytical methods. This drives the emergence of new paradigms in ways that analysis cannot easily do.

  • The common goal for both subfields is the use of interchangeable parts to develop new systems to meet performance specifications. These parts must function (to a first approximation) independently. Obtaining interchangeable parts is easier in the macroscopic world than in the molecular world; the principal challenge in synthetic biology is to identify interchangeable parts in the molecular world.

  • The development of living chemical systems and novel organisms allows the scientific community to better understand how the individual chemicals and genes involved in biology interact to form new emergent properties.

  • Synthetic biologists have developed artificial genetic systems that can undergo Darwinian evolution. This has provided insight into the chemical constraints that need to be met by a genetic system.

  • Synthetic biologists have also developed 'toy' organisms and systems, such as an organism that functions as an oscillation system, and a molecular automaton that can interactively play tic-tac-toe with a human.

  • Synthetic biology has used metabolic-pathway design and genetic elements to develop organisms that can synthesize important chemicals, such as precursors for antibiotics and polymers.

  • Truly interchangeable parts at the molecular level have so far only been obtained with nucleic acids. Using amino acids and the secondary structural elements of proteins as interchangeable parts has not yet been possible. Interchangeable genetic elements are possible, although their use is not without complications.

  • Artificial chemical systems that support Darwinian evolution — the bridge between non-life and life — are allowing synthetic biologists to realize the relationship between life and chemistry.

  • The hazards of synthetic biology are open for discussion, because the ability to develop living systems and organisms with novel functions could conceivably be used maliciously.

Abstract

Synthetic biologists come in two broad classes. One uses unnatural molecules to reproduce emergent behaviours from natural biology, with the goal of creating artificial life. The other seeks interchangeable parts from natural biology to assemble into systems that function unnaturally. Either way, a synthetic goal forces scientists to cross uncharted ground to encounter and solve problems that are not easily encountered through analysis. This drives the emergence of new paradigms in ways that analysis cannot easily do. Synthetic biology has generated diagnostic tools that improve the care of patients with infectious diseases, as well as devices that oscillate, creep and play tic-tac-toe.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Examples of alternative nucleobases.
Figure 2: Branched DNA assay developed by scientists at Chiron and Bayer Diagnostics.
Figure 3: A self-templating system built from peptide units.
Figure 4: Using proteins as interchangeable parts in synthetic biology.
Figure 5: The design and application of the repressilator.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hobom, B. Surgery of genes. At the doorstep of synthetic biology. Medizin. Klinik 75, 14–21 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rawls, R. 'Synthetic Biology' makes its debut. Chem. Eng. News 49–53 (24 April 2000).

  3. Benner, S. A. Redesigning life. Organic chemistry and the evolution of protein. Chimia 41, 142–148 (1987).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Szostak, J. W., Bartel, D. P. & Luisi, P. L. Synthesizing life. Nature 409, 387–390 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Benner, S. A. Act natural. Nature 421, 118 (2003). This paper outlines the importance of pursuing the science of synthetic biology.

  6. Breslow, R. Centenary Lecture. Biomimetic chemistry. Chem. Soc. Rev. 1, 553–580 (1972).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Salt, G. W. Use of the term 'emergent properties'. Comment. Am. Nat. 113, 145–148 (1979).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Benner, S. A. (ed.) Redesigning the Molecules of Life 115–175 (Springer, Heidelberg, 1988).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Gibbs, W. W. Synthetic life. Sci. Am. 290, 74–81 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Elbeik, T. et al. Simultaneous runs of the Bayer VERSANT HIV-1 version 3.0 and HCV bDNA version 3.0 quantitative assays on the system 340 platform provide reliable quantitation and improved work flow. J. Clin. Microbiol. 42, 3120–3127 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Elbeik, T. et al. Multicenter evaluation of the performance characteristics of the Bayer VERSANT HCV RNA 3. 0 assay (bDNA). J. Clin. Microbiol. 42, 563–569 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Benner, S. A. Redesigning genetics. Science 306, 625–626 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Latham, J. A., Johnson, R. & Toole, J. J. The application of a modified nucleotide in aptamer selection. Novel thrombin aptamers containing 5-(1-pentynyl)-2'-deoxyuridine. Nucleic Acids Res. 22, 2817–2822 (1994).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Sismour, A. M. et al. PCR amplification of DNA containing non-standard base pairs by variants of reverse transcriptase from Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1. Nucleic Acids. Res. 32, 728–735 (2004). This paper describes the first example of an artificial genetic system that can be replicated by enzymes, and highlights some important concepts in the design of genetic systems.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Battersby, T. R. et al. Quantitative analysis of receptors for adenosine nucleotides obtained via in vitro selection from a library incorporating a cationic nucleotide analog. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 121, 9781–9789 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Elowitz, M. B. & Leibler, S. A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators. Nature 403, 335–338 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Ruben, A. J. & Landweber, L. F. The past, present and future of molecular computing. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 1, 69–72 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. SantaLucia, J. & Hicks, D. The thermodynamics of DNA structural motifs. Ann. Rev. Biophys. Biomol. Struct. 33, 415–440 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Rich, A. & Zhang, S. G. Z-DNA: the long road to biological function. Nature Rev. Genet. 4, 566–572 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Sen, D. & Gilbert, W. Novel DNA superstructures formed by telomere-like oligomers. Biochemistry 31, 65–70 (1992).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Kazakov, S. & Altman, S. A. Trinucleotide can promote metal ion-dependent specific cleavage of RNA. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 89, 7939–7943 (1992).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Benner, S. A. Understanding nucleic acids using synthetic chemistry. Acc. Chem. Res. 37, 784–797 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Ball, P. Synthetic biology: starting from scratch. Nature 431, 624–626 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Freier, S. M. & Altmann, K. H. The ups and downs of nucleic acid duplex stability: structure-stability studies on chemically-modified DNA:RNA duplexes. Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 4429–4443 (1997).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Pitha, J., Pitha P. M. & Ts'o, P. O. Poly(1-vinyluracil): the preparation and interactions with adenosine derivatives. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 204, 39–48 (1970).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Schneider, K. C. & Benner, S. A. Oligonucleotides containing flexible nucleoside analogs. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 112, 453–455 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Nielsen, P. E. PNA technology. Mol. Biotechnol. 26, 233–248 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Benner, S. A. & Hutter, D. Phosphates, DNA, and the search for nonterrean life: A second generation model for genetic molecules. Bioorg. Chem. 30, 62–80 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Wilds, C. J., Wawrzak, Z., Krishnamurthy, R., Eschenmoser, A. & Egli, M. Crystal structure of a B-form DNA duplex containing (L)-α-threofuranosyl (3′→2′) nucleosides: A four-carbon sugar is easily accommodated into the backbone of DNA. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 13716–13721 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Wengel, J. Synthesis of 3′-C- and 4′-C-branched oligodeoxynucleotides and the development of locked nucleic acid (LNA). Acc. Chem. Res. 32, 301–310 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Hutter, D., Blaettler, M. O. & Benner, S. A. From phosphate to bis(methylene) sulfone: Non-ionic backbone linkers in DNA. Helv. Chim. Acta. 85, 2777–2806 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Declercq, R., Van Aerschot, A., Read, R. J., Herdewijn, P. & Van Meervelt, L. Crystal structure of double helical hexitol nucleic acids. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 928–933 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Larralde, R., Robertson, M. P. & Miller, S. L. Rates of decomposition of ribose and other sugars. Implications for chemical evolution. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 92, 8158–8160 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Eschenmoser, A. Chemical etiology of nucleic acid structure. Science 284, 2118–2124 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Ricardo, A., Carrigan, M. A., Olcott, A. N. & Benner, S. A. Borate minerals stabilize ribose. Science 303, 196 (2004).

  36. Geyer, C. R., Battersby, T. R. & Benner, S. A. Nucleobase pairing in expanded Watson-Crick-like genetic information systems. Structure 11, 1485–1498 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Meyer, A. S., Blandino, M. & Spratt, T. E. Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment) uses a hydrogen-bonding fork from Arg(668) to the primer terminus and incoming deoxynucleotide triphosphate to catalyze DNA replication. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 33043–33046 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Hutter, D. & Benner, S. A. Expanding the genetic alphabet. Non-epimerizing nucleoside with the pyDDA hydrogen bonding pattern. J. Org. Chem. 68, 9839–9842 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Martinot, T. A. & Benner, S. A. Artificial genetic systems: exploiting the 'aromaticity' formalism to improve the tautomeric ratio for isoguanosine derivatives. J. Org. Chem. 69, 3972–3975 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Collins, M. L. et al. A branched DNA signal amplification assay for quantification of nucleic acid targets below 100 molecules/ml. Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 2979–2984 (1997).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Schmeissner, U. & Miller, J. H. Genetic studies of Lac repressor. Experientia 32, 811–811 (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Smith, M. Synthetic DNA and biology (Nobel lecture). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 33, 1214–1221 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Ulmer, K. M. Protein engineering. Science 219, 666–671 (1983).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Arnold, F. H. et al. Engineering nonaqueous solvent-compatible enzymes. ACS Symp. Ser. 516, 109–113 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Mildvan, A. S. Inverse thinking about double mutants of enzymes. Biochemistry 43, 14517–14520 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Knowles, J. R. Tinkering with enzymes: what are we learning? Science 236, 1252–1258 (1987).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Fukami-Kobayashi, K., Schreiber, D. R. & Benner, S. A. Detecting compensatory covariation signals in protein evolution using reconstructed ancestral sequences. J. Mol. Biol. 319, 729–743 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Ding, K., Chandler, D., Smithline, S. J. & Haymet, A. D. Density-functionaltheory for the freezing of water. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1698–1701 (1987).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Zepik, H. & Benner, S. A. Catalysts, anticatalysts, and receptors for unactivated phosphate diesters in water. J. Org. Chem. 64, 8080–8083 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Dunitz, J. D. & Bernstein, J. Disappearing polymorphs. Acc. Chem. Res. 28, 193–200 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Mayo, K. H. Recent advances in the design and construction of synthetic peptides: for the love of basics or just for the technology of it. Trends Biotechnol. 18, 212–217 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Venkatraman, J., Shankaramma, S. C. & Balaram, P. Design of folded peptides. Chem. Rev. 101, 3131–3152 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Dwyer, M. A., Looger, L. L. & Hellinga, H. W. Computational design of a biologically active enzyme. Science 304 1967–1971 (2004). This paper illustrates the progress made in the de novo design of biological molecules.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Shah, P. S., Hom, G. K. & Mayo, S. L. Preprocessing of rotamers for protein design calculations. J. Comput. Chem. 25, 1797–1800 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Ali, M. H., Peisach, E., Allen, K. N. & Imperiali, B. X-ray structure analysis of a designed olilgomeric miniprotein reveals a discrete quaternary architecture. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 12183–12188 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  56. Arnold, F. H. Combinatorial and computational challenges for biocatalyst design. Nature 409, 253–257 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. First, E. A. & Fersht, A. R. Analysis of the role of the KMSKS loop in the catalytic mechanism of the tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase using multimutant cycles. Biochemistry 34, 5030–5043 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Tabor, S. & Richardson, C. C. A single residue in DNA polymerases of the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I family is critical for distinguishing between deoxy- and dideoxyribonucleotides. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 92, 6339–6343 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Igarashi, K., Hagihara, H. & Ito, S. Protein engineering of detergent α-amylases. Trends Glycosci. Glycotechnol. 15, 101–114 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Pauling, L. & Corey, R. B. Atomic coordinates and structure factors for two helical configurations of polypeptide chains. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 37, 235–240 (1951).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  61. Velicelebi, G., Patthi, S. & Kaiser, E. T. Design and biological activity of analogs of growth hormone releasing factor with potential amphiphilic helical carboxyl termini. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 83, 5397–5399 (1986).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  62. Degrado, W. F., Kezdy, F. J. & Kaiser, E. T. Design, synthesis and characterization of a cyto-toxic peptide with melittin-like activity. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 103, 679–681 (1981).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Ghirlanda, G., Lear, J. D., Ogihara, N. L., Eisenberg, D. & DeGrado, W. F. A hierarchic approach to the design of hexameric helical barrels. J. Mol. Bio. 319, 243–253 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  64. Quinn, T. P., Tweedy, N. B., Williams, R. W., Richardson, J. S. & Richardson, D. C. Betadoublet: de novo design, synthesis, and characterization of a β-sandwich protein. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 91, 8747–8751 (1994).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  65. Kennan, A. J., Haridas, V., Severin, K., Lee, D. H. & Ghadiri, M. R. A de novo designed peptide ligase: A mechanistic investigation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 1797–1803 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Saghatelian, A., Yokobayashi, Y., Soltani, K. & Ghadiri, M. R. A chiroselective peptide replicator. Nature 409, 797–801 (2001). The chiroselective peptide replicator developed in this article illustrates the modular design aspects of synthetic biology and the ability to replicate information in a peptide based system.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Johnsson, K., Allemann, R. K., Widmer, H. & Benner, S. A. Synthesis, structure and activity of artificial, rationally designed catalytic polypeptides. Nature 365, 530–532 (1993).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Taylor, S. E., Rutherford, T. J. & Allemann, R. K. Design of a folded, conformationally stable oxaloacetate decarboxylase. J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 2, 751–755 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Nicoll, A. J. & Allemann, R. K. Nucleophilic and general acid catalysis at physiological pH by a designed miniature esterase. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2, 2175–2180 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  70. Kaplan, J. & DeGrado, W. F. De novo design of catalytic proteins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 11566–11570 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  71. Tanaka, F. & Barbas, C. F. A modular assembly strategy for improving the substrate specificity of small catalytic peptides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 3510–3511 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Roy, S. W. & Gilbert, W. Complex early genes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 102, 1986–1991 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  73. Benner, S. A. & Ellington, A. D. Interpreting the behavior of enzymes. Purpose or pedigree? CRC Crit. Rev. Biochem. 23, 369–426 (1988).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Jacobsen, J. R. & Khosla, C. New directions in metabolic engineering. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2, 133–137 (1998). This paper presents some of the recent work in metabolic engineering that is typically used in synthetic biology.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  75. Das, A. Strain selection in citric acid fermentation. A review. Curr. Sci. 41, 593–596 (1972).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  76. Fukui, T., Abe, H. & Doi, Y. Engineering of Ralstonia eutropha for production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) from fructose and solid-state properties of the copolymer. Biomacromolecules 3, 618–624 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  77. Martin, V. J., Pitera, D. J., Withers, S. T., Newman, J. D. & Keasling, J. D. Engineering a mevalonate pathway in Escherichia coli for production of terpenoids. Nature Biotech. 21, 796–802 (2003). The development of a bacterial strain that can synthesize pharmaceuticals illustrates the power of synthetic biology as a tool for technology.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  78. Khosla, C. & Keasling, J. D. Metabolic engineering for drug discovery and development. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 2, 1019–1025 (2003). This paper highlights the complexity that is required to engineer a metabolic pathway successfully.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  79. Lim, W. A. The modular logic of signaling proteins: Building allosteric switches from simple binding domains. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 12, 61–68 (2002). This paper lays the foundation for designing complex logic networks.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  80. Howard, P. L., Chia, M. C., Del Rizzo, S., Liu, F. F. & Pawson, T. Redirecting tyrosine kinase signaling to an apoptotic caspase pathway through chimeric adaptor proteins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 11267–11272 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  81. Hasty, J., McMillen, D. & Collins, J. J. . Engineered gene circuits. Nature 420, 224–230 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  82. Eisen, H., Brachet, P., Pereira da Silva L. & Jacob, F. Regulation of repressor expression in λ. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 66, 855–862 (1970).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  83. Stojanovic, M. N. & Stefanovic, D. A deoxyribozyme-based molecular automaton. Nature Biotech. 21, 1069–1074 (2003). This paper illustrates not only the ability to develop interactive logic networks, but also some of the new kinds of technology that synthetic biology is producing.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  84. Ferber, D. Synthetic biology. Time for a synthetic biology Asilomar? Science 303, 159 (2004).

  85. Cello, J., Paul, A. V. & Wimmer, E. J. Chemical synthesis of poliovirus cDNA: Generation of infectious virus in the absence of natural template. Science 297, 1016–1018 (2002). The chemical synthesis of poliovirus cDNA described in this article illustrates the ability to synthesize life; the paper also discusses the dangers of synthetic biology and organism engineering.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  86. Rasmussen, S., Chen L., Nilsson, M. & Abe, S. Bridging nonliving and living matter. Artif. Life 9, 269–316 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  87. Belovsky, G. E. et al. Ten suggestions to strengthen the science of ecology. Bioscience 54, 345–351 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  88. Steitz, T. A. & Moore, P. B. RNA, the first macromolecular catalyst: the ribosome is a ribozyme. Trends Biochem. Sci. 28, 411–418 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  89. Bearden, D. A. A complexity-based risk assessment of low-cost planetary missions: when is a mission too fast and too cheap? Acta Astronaut. 52, 371–379 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  90. Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Univ. Chicago Press, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  91. Masterman, M. in Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (eds Lakatos, I. & Musgrave, A. ) 59–89 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1970).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  92. Woodward, R. B. Recent advances in the chemistry of natural products. Pure Appl. Chem. 17, 519–547 (1968).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  93. Park, S. H., Zarrinpar, A. & Lim, W. A. Rewiring MAP kinase pathways using alternative scaffold assembly mechanisms. Science 299, 1061–1064 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  94. Prehoda, K. E., Scott, J. A., Mullins, R. D. & Lim, W. A. Integration of multiple signals through cooperative regulation of the N-WASP-Arp2/3 complex. Science 290, 801–806 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  95. Dueber, J. E., Yeh, B. J., Bhattacharyya, R. P. & Lim. W. A. Rewiring cell signaling: the logic and plasticity of eukaryotic protein circuitry. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 14, 690–699 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  96. Hutchison, C. A. et al. Global transposon mutagenesis and a minimal mycoplasma genome. Science 286, 2165–2169 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  97. Adami, C. Introduction to Artificial Life (Springer, New York, 1998).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  98. Yokobayashi, Y., Collins, C. H., Leadbetter, J. R., Arnold, F. H. & Weiss, R. Evolutionary design of genetic circuits and cell-cell communications. Adv. Complex Systems 6, 37–45 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611-7200, FL, USA

    Steven A. Benner & A. Michael Sismour

Authors
  1. Steven A. Benner
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Michael Sismour
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven A. Benner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Related links

Related links

DATABASES

Entrez Gene

Fadd

Gab1

Grb2

Sos2

FURTHER INFORMATION

Benner laboratory

Eric Kool's laboratory page

National Science Foundation's Program in Chemical Bonding

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Glossary

Z-DNA

DNA that exists in a left handed helix rather than the typical right-handed helix of A- and B-form DNA.

G QUARTET

A secondary structure observed in G-rich DNA in which four consecutive guanosine residues bind to each other through interactions in the major groove to form very stable tertiary structures.

REPEATING CHARGE

Where the same ionic charge occurs at the same position of each monomeric subunit of a polymer.

THREOSE DNA

DNA molecules based on the sugar threose rather than ribose.

LOCKED NUCLEIC ACIDS

Nucleic acids containing a CH2 linkage between the 2′OH and 4′ carbon of the ribose sugar.

EPIMERIZATION

Organic molecules can have configurational isomers that have the same number of atoms, and that are bonded in the same way, but that differ in the orientation of the atoms in three dimensions. Epimerization is the spontaneous interconversion of such isomers.

TAUTOMERIC

Isomeric forms of organic molecules in which the same number of atoms are bonded in the same way, except for hydrogen atoms, which are positioned differently.

BUILDING MODULE

A discrete unit used in the construction of a larger structure.

ROTAMERS

(Rotational isomers).Isomeric forms of organic molecules that have the same number of atoms, that are bonded in the same way, but in which the placement of atoms in three dimensional space differs by their rotation around single bonds.

LOGIC GATE

An arrangement of switches used to calculate operations in Boolean algebra; statements are connected into more complicated compound statements by the use of AND, NOT and OR relationships.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Benner, S., Sismour, A. Synthetic biology. Nat Rev Genet 6, 533–543 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1637

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1637

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing