Autonomous and Assisted Control for Synthetic Microbiology

Area of Science:

• Synthetic Biology
• Control Theory
• Microbial Systems Engineering

Background:

• Achieving specific functions with microbial consortia necessitates synthetic circuits resilient to perturbations.
• Naturally evolved biological circuits often exhibit inherent robustness, a desirable trait for synthetic systems.
• Robustness mechanisms in synthetic intercellular signaling circuits for microbial consortia are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review natural and synthetic microbial systems exhibiting robustness.
• To outline experimental strategies for implementing robust control in microbial consortia using population-level cybergenetics.
• To propose harnessing natural intercellular circuit topologies for robust synthetic control.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on robust natural and synthetic microbial systems.
• Conceptualization of population-level cybergenetics for microbial consortia.
• Proposal of a 'hybrid biology' approach integrating synthetic microbes, natural consortia, and external computers.

Main Results:

• Identification of robustness as a key challenge in synthetic microbial circuit design.
• Cybergenetics offers external and internal control strategies for robust microbial systems.
• Natural circuit topologies provide a blueprint for designing robust synthetic intercellular circuits.

Conclusions:

• Harnessing evolved natural circuit designs can lead to robust synthetic intercellular circuits.
• A 'hybrid biology' approach combining synthetic and natural systems with computational control shows promise.
• Robust synthetic microbial consortia have potential applications in health and environmental sectors.