Goold Hugh Douglas, Wright Philip, Hailstones Deborah
Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia.
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, Woodbridge Road, Menangle, NSW 2568, Australia.
Genes (Basel). 2018 Jul 6;9(7):341. doi: 10.3390/genes9070341.
Rapid expansion in the emerging field of synthetic biology has to date mainly focused on the microbial sciences and human health. However, the zeitgeist is that synthetic biology will also shortly deliver major outcomes for agriculture. The primary industries of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, face significant and global challenges; addressing them will be assisted by the sector’s strong history of early adoption of transformative innovation, such as the genetic technologies that underlie synthetic biology. The implementation of synthetic biology within agriculture may, however, be hampered given the industry is dominated by higher plants and mammals, where large and often polyploid genomes and the lack of adequate tools challenge the ability to deliver outcomes in the short term. However, synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field, new techniques in genome design and synthesis, and more efficient molecular tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 may harbor opportunities more broadly than the development of new cultivars and breeds. In particular, the ability to use synthetic biology to engineer biosensors, synthetic speciation, microbial metabolic engineering, mammalian multiplexed CRISPR, novel anti microbials, and projects such as Yeast 2.0 all have significant potential to deliver transformative changes to agriculture in the short, medium and longer term. Specifically, synthetic biology promises to deliver benefits that increase productivity and sustainability across primary industries, underpinning the industry’s prosperity in the face of global challenges.
合成生物学这一新兴领域的快速发展至今主要集中在微生物科学和人类健康方面。然而，当下的思潮认为合成生物学也将很快在农业领域取得重大成果。农业、渔业和林业等第一产业面临着重大的全球性挑战；该行业早期采用变革性创新（如合成生物学所基于的基因技术）的悠久历史将有助于应对这些挑战。然而，鉴于农业产业以高等植物和哺乳动物为主，其庞大且往往是多倍体的基因组以及缺乏足够的工具，可能会阻碍合成生物学在农业中的应用，使其难以在短期内取得成果。不过，合成生物学是一个快速发展的领域，基因组设计与合成方面的新技术以及更高效的分子工具（如CRISPR/Cas9）可能带来比培育新品种更广泛的机遇。特别是，利用合成生物学设计生物传感器、合成物种形成、微生物代谢工程、哺乳动物多重CRISPR、新型抗菌剂以及“酵母2.0”等项目，都有很大潜力在短期、中期和长期为农业带来变革性变化。具体而言，合成生物学有望带来提高第一产业生产力和可持续性的益处，支撑该行业在全球挑战面前的繁荣发展。
