synthetic circuits in plant chloroplasts. A plastome designed for the complete
mevalonate pathway (All genes in the conduit were coordinately controlled by a
single promoter) has been implanted in the chloroplast of tobacco leaves (Kumar
et al. 2012). Liu and Stewart Jr. (2015) have anticipated that advances in synthetic
plastomes would permit economical and extensive fabrication of enzymes,
biopharmaceuticals, bioactive natural products of commercial interest. While the
mainstream approaches in SynBio expertise focus on microbial species, the growth
of new developing disruptive technologies (like CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome
editing) is taking the field closer to plants, where whole synthetic genome approach
seems to hold great potential for agriculture. Moreover, The Genome Project-write
(GP-write), a worldwide project run by a multidisciplinary scientists, focuses on the
expansion of approaches to synthesize and analyse genomes of many diverse
species. One of the overarching goals is to offer whole-genome design and synthesis
by delivering well-structured projects to agriculture (Goold et al. 2018).
15.10 Conclusions and Future Perspectives
In the next green movement, SynBio is enabling mankind to apply design and
engineering principles to directly convert sunlight, water, methane or waste products
into economically significant, sustainable, and efficient solutions to looming global
agricultural and environmental challenges. These developments will provide new
markets for farmers, beyond principal food and fibre, such as designing crops to
meet the aspirations of increasingly affluent consumers. Looking into the increasing
demand, R&D funding and initiatives, and wide range of applications of SynBio, it
is expected that its market is going to climb at approximately 23.9% CAGR
(Compound Annual Growth Rate). Although a set of next-generation innovative
concepts are available now, a very few (like synthetic microbiota as sustainable
fertilizers) of these concepts have yet reached the stage of commercialization.
Progressing from the theoretical design of a biological function to a realistic application does come with risks that must be mitigated or controlled. Technical
challenges such as unexpected complexity, unavailability of most naturally existing
biological genetic pathways, the ambiguity of certain genes, the erratic evolution of
gene’s regulatory sequences, scalability, scarcity of tools, the survival of synthetic
organisms in natural environments, and ethical issues have to be addressed. The
scientific community understands that societal acceptance of SynBio commodities
will be based on the transparency of the research to the common man and the
breakthroughs must be financially viable as well as adaptable to diverse global
agroecosystems. In this viewpoint, foundations like BioBricks, are providing safe,
ethical, inexpensive standardized biological parts (marketed as BioBricks™) to
ensure that biological engineering is being conducted in a see-through manner to
benefit the sustainability of the planet. Concepts and applications of SynBio
approaches should be published in much advance to give lead time for discussion
on associated ethical, environmental and biosecurity concerns, research into areas of
uncertainty, and development and testing of biosafety features to avoid the pitfalls.
15 Plant Synthetic Biology: A Paradigm Shift Targeting Stress Mitigation,. . .
473
mevalonate pathway (All genes in the conduit were coordinately controlled by a
single promoter) has been implanted in the chloroplast of tobacco leaves (Kumar
et al. 2012). Liu and Stewart Jr. (2015) have anticipated that advances in synthetic
plastomes would permit economical and extensive fabrication of enzymes,
biopharmaceuticals, bioactive natural products of commercial interest. While the
mainstream approaches in SynBio expertise focus on microbial species, the growth
of new developing disruptive technologies (like CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome
editing) is taking the field closer to plants, where whole synthetic genome approach
seems to hold great potential for agriculture. Moreover, The Genome Project-write
(GP-write), a worldwide project run by a multidisciplinary scientists, focuses on the
expansion of approaches to synthesize and analyse genomes of many diverse
species. One of the overarching goals is to offer whole-genome design and synthesis
by delivering well-structured projects to agriculture (Goold et al. 2018).
15.10 Conclusions and Future Perspectives
In the next green movement, SynBio is enabling mankind to apply design and
engineering principles to directly convert sunlight, water, methane or waste products
into economically significant, sustainable, and efficient solutions to looming global
agricultural and environmental challenges. These developments will provide new
markets for farmers, beyond principal food and fibre, such as designing crops to
meet the aspirations of increasingly affluent consumers. Looking into the increasing
demand, R&D funding and initiatives, and wide range of applications of SynBio, it
is expected that its market is going to climb at approximately 23.9% CAGR
(Compound Annual Growth Rate). Although a set of next-generation innovative
concepts are available now, a very few (like synthetic microbiota as sustainable
fertilizers) of these concepts have yet reached the stage of commercialization.
Progressing from the theoretical design of a biological function to a realistic application does come with risks that must be mitigated or controlled. Technical
challenges such as unexpected complexity, unavailability of most naturally existing
biological genetic pathways, the ambiguity of certain genes, the erratic evolution of
gene’s regulatory sequences, scalability, scarcity of tools, the survival of synthetic
organisms in natural environments, and ethical issues have to be addressed. The
scientific community understands that societal acceptance of SynBio commodities
will be based on the transparency of the research to the common man and the
breakthroughs must be financially viable as well as adaptable to diverse global
agroecosystems. In this viewpoint, foundations like BioBricks, are providing safe,
ethical, inexpensive standardized biological parts (marketed as BioBricks™) to
ensure that biological engineering is being conducted in a see-through manner to
benefit the sustainability of the planet. Concepts and applications of SynBio
approaches should be published in much advance to give lead time for discussion
on associated ethical, environmental and biosecurity concerns, research into areas of
uncertainty, and development and testing of biosafety features to avoid the pitfalls.
15 Plant Synthetic Biology: A Paradigm Shift Targeting Stress Mitigation,. . .
473