{"title":"Advances in engineering genetic circuits for microbial biocontainment","authors":"Yuefeng Ma , Abhijit Manna , Tae Seok Moon","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100483","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100483","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>The development of synthetic biology has resulted in the use of genetically engineered microbes<span> (GEMs), becoming increasingly critical for addressing global issues such as health, food shortage, climate crisis, and environmental pollution. However, GEMs also pose a potential threat to the ecosystem, necessitating the implementation of biocontainment strategies. Synthetic genetic circuits have the potential to provide an additional level of safety and control beyond traditional physical containment measures. The development of biocontainment strategies is ongoing, including the use of kill switches, </span></span>auxotrophy, and stringent response circuits, to control the viability of GEMs. This review discusses the application and future directions of genetic circuits for microbial biocontainment strategies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100483"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135454736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aidan E. Cowan , Sarah H. Klass , Peter H. Winegar , Jay D. Keasling
{"title":"Microbial production of fuels, commodity chemicals, and materials from sustainable sources of carbon and energy","authors":"Aidan E. Cowan , Sarah H. Klass , Peter H. Winegar , Jay D. Keasling","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100482","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Anthropogenic carbon emissions are driving rapid changes to the earth's climate, disrupting whole ecosystems and endangering the stability of human society. Innovations in engineered microbial fermentation enable the fossil resource-free production of fuels, commodity chemicals, and materials, thereby reducing the carbon emissions associated with these products. Microorganisms have been engineered to catabolize sustainable sources of carbon and energy (<em>i.e.</em>, plant biomass, plastic waste, and one-carbon feedstocks) and biosynthesize carbon-neutral or carbon-negative products. These engineering efforts exploit and optimize natural biological pathways or generate unnatural pathways which can biosynthesize chemicals that have not yet been accessed using synthetic chemistry. Recent advances in microbial fermentation seek not only to maximize the titer, rate, and yield of desired products, but also to tailor microbial catabolism to utilize inexpensive feedstocks. Ultimately, these advances aim to lower the cost of bioproduction so that microorganism-derived chemicals can be economically competitive with fossil-derived chemicals.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100482"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136571775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shedding light on spatial structure and dynamics in phototrophic biofilms","authors":"Freddy Bunbury, Amanda N. Shelton, Devaki Bhaya","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100480","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Microbial phototrophic communities dominated early Earth and thrive to this day, particularly in extreme environments. We focus on the impact of diel oscillations on phototrophic biofilms, especially in hot springs, where oxygenic phototrophs are keystone species that use light energy to fix carbon and often nitrogen. They exhibit photo-motility and stratification, and alter the physicochemical environment by driving O</span><sub>2</sub>, CO<sub>2,</sub><span> and pH oscillations. Omics analyses reveal extensive genomic and functional diversity in biofilms, but linking this to a predictive understanding of their structure and dynamics remains challenging. This can be addressed by better spatiotemporal resolution of microbial interactions, improved tools for building and manipulating synthetic communities, and integration of empirical and theoretical approaches.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100480"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90029760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Insertion sequences: Simple mobile elements with rich ecological and evolutionary structures","authors":"Yuki Kanai , Saburo Tsuru , Chikara Furusawa","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100481","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Over the past two decades, genome sequencing has uncovered the diversity and distribution of insertion sequences within prokaryotic genomes. However, the complexity of insertion sequence ecology and evolution hinders us from understanding their nature. Recent studies have employed experimental and </span>computational models to study insertion sequences, emphasizing their role in shaping prokaryotic genome structures. Nonetheless, related areas remain with limited understanding, such as the speciation of insertion sequences. We believe that future studies should continue to develop tractable experimental and computational models to advance our understanding of IS ecology and evolution and their influence on the evolution of prokaryotic genomes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100481"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50173552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robustness of microbiome function","authors":"Kiseok Keith Lee , Yeonwoo Park , Seppe Kuehn","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100479","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Microbial communities perform metabolic processes that sustain life on Earth and promote human health. Microbial consortia sustain these functions in the face of constant structural and environmental perturbations. How do complex communities robustly sustain their functional properties despite perturbations? Most studies of functional robustness in the </span>microbiome have been limited to biodiversity and functional redundancy, the idea that there are multiple members of the community that can sustain a specific function. Here, we propose that ideas from other complex biological systems may be applied to deepen our understanding of microbiome robustness. By surveying the causes of functional robustness in a variety of biological systems, including proteins and cells, and discussing how they can be applied to the microbiome, we build conceptual and experimental frameworks for understanding the functional robustness of microbial communities. We hope that these insights might help better predict and engineer microbiome function.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100479"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50173551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prophage mediated control of higher order interactions - Insights from multi-level approaches","authors":"Carolin C. Wendling","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100469","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100469","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Prophages, latent viral elements residing in </span>bacterial genomes<span> affect bacterial ecology and evolution in diverse ways. Do these prophage-mediated effects extend beyond the prophage-bacterial relationship? Here, I summarize the latest advances exploring how the impacts of prophages are transmitted through multiple levels of biological systems with potential impacts on ecosystem stability and functioning. The diverse effects of prophages on higher-order interactions are context-specific, ranging from contributions to global biogeochemical processes and mutualistic interactions to increased disease severity with negative impacts on ecosystem engineers and potential cascading effects for multiple species. While we have a solid understanding of the mechanisms by which prophages modulate their bacterial hosts at the cellular and population levels, future research may take an integrative approach to quantify their effects in complex ecosystems.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100469"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47770957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainable diversity of phage-bacteria systems","authors":"Namiko Mitarai, Anastasios Marantos, Kim Sneppen","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100468","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100468","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Bacteriophages are central to microbial ecosystems for balancing bacterial populations and promoting evolution by applying strong selection pressure. Here, we review some of the known aspects that modulate phage–bacteria interaction in a way that naturally promotes their coexistence. We focus on the modulations that arise from structural, physical, or physiological constraints. We argue they should play roles in many phage–bacteria systems providing sustainable diversity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100468"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46699023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Control of tissue dimensions in the developing neural tube and somites","authors":"Thomas Minchington , Stefanie Lehr , Anna Kicheva","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100459","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100459","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite its fundamental importance for development, the question of how organs achieve their correct size and shape is poorly understood. This complex process requires coordination between the generation of cell mass and the morphogenetic mechanisms that sculpt tissues. These processes are regulated by morphogen signalling pathways and mechanical forces. Yet, in many systems, it is unclear how biochemical and mechanical signalling are quantitatively interpreted to determine the behaviours of individual cells and how they contribute to growth and morphogenesis at the tissue scale. In this review, we discuss the development of the vertebrate neural tube and somites as an example of the state of knowledge, as well as the challenges in understanding the mechanisms of tissue size control in vertebrate organogenesis. We highlight how the recent advances in stem cell differentiation and organoid approaches can be harnessed to provide new insights into this question.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100459"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47108392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Olivier Gandrillon , Mathilde Gaillard , Thibault Espinasse , Nicolas B. Garnier , Charles Dussiaud , Olivier Kosmider , Pierre Sujobert
{"title":"Corrigendum to: Entropy as a measure of variability and stemness in single-cell transcriptomics","authors":"Olivier Gandrillon , Mathilde Gaillard , Thibault Espinasse , Nicolas B. Garnier , Charles Dussiaud , Olivier Kosmider , Pierre Sujobert","doi":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100458","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.coisb.2023.100458","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100458"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44077606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial Board Page","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S2452-3100(23)00031-8","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S2452-3100(23)00031-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37400,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Systems Biology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100474"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41253448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}