Synthetic communities, the sum of parts
Cooperation between cells is one of evolution's fundamental innovations. It allows cells to specialize: Different members of a consortium assume different responsibilities, increasing overall productivity and allowing for more complex behavior than is possible with a single cell or a monocultur...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2017
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110014 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9833-2817 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0396-2443 |
| Summary: | Cooperation between cells is one of evolution's fundamental innovations. It allows cells to specialize: Different members of a consortium assume different responsibilities, increasing overall productivity and allowing for more complex behavior than is possible with a single cell or a monoculture (1). These features of natural systems have attracted the attention of synthetic biologists, who have made engineering of cooperation between cells a long-standing goal. On page 986 of this issue, Chen et al. (2) report the creation of a synthetic consortium of cooperating Escherichia coli bacteria. The design principles they demonstrate have important implications for the construction of multicellular synthetic systems. |
|---|