de Lorenzo Víctor
Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
Life Sci Soc Policy. 2018 Aug 12;14(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s40504-018-0086-x.
Synthetic biology is not only a contemporary reformulation of the recombinant DNA technologies of the last 30 years, combined with descriptive language imported from electrical and industrial engineering. It is also a new way to interpret living systems and a statement of intent for the use and reprogramming of biological objects for human benefit. In this context, the notion of designer biology is often presented as opposed to natural selection following the powerful rationale formulated by François Jacob on evolution-as-tinkering. The onset of synthetic biology opens a different perspective by leaving aside the question about the evolutionary origin of biological phenomena and focusing instead on the relational logic and the material properties of the corresponding components that make biological system work as they do. Once a functional challenge arises, the solution space for the problem is not homogeneous but it has attractors that can be accessed either through random exploration (as evolution does) or rational design (as engineers do). Although these two paths (i.e. evolution and engineering) are essentially different, they can lead to solutions to specific mechanistic bottlenecks that frequently coincide or converge-and one can easily help to understand and improve the other. Alas, productive discussions on these matters are often contaminated by ideological preconceptions that prevent adoption of the engineering metaphor to understand and ultimately reshape living systems-as ambitioned by synthetic biology. Yet, some possible ways to overcome the impasse are feasible. In parallel to Monod's evolutionary paradox of teleo-logy (finality/purpose) vs. teleo-nomy (appearance of finality/purpose), a mechanistic paradox could be entertained between techno-logy (rational engineering) vs techno-nomy (appearance of rational engineering), all for the sake of understanding the relational logic that enables live systems to function as physico-chemical entities in time and space. This article thus proposes a radical vision of synthetic biology through the lens of the engineering metaphor.
合成生物学不仅是对过去30年重组DNA技术的当代重新表述，还融合了从电气和工业工程引入的描述性语言。它也是一种解释生命系统的新方式，以及一种为人类利益而使用和重新编程生物对象的意向声明。在这种背景下，设计生物学的概念常常被提出，与遵循弗朗索瓦·雅各布关于进化即修补的有力理论的自然选择相对立。合成生物学的出现开启了一个不同的视角，它搁置了关于生物现象进化起源的问题，而是专注于使生物系统如此运作的相应组件的关系逻辑和物质特性。一旦出现功能挑战，问题的解决方案空间并非均匀一致，而是具有吸引子，既可以通过随机探索（如进化那样），也可以通过理性设计（如工程师那样）来实现。尽管这两条路径（即进化和工程）本质上不同，但它们可以通向特定机制瓶颈的解决方案，这些解决方案常常重合或趋同——而且一种路径可以轻易地帮助理解和改进另一种路径。遗憾的是，关于这些问题的富有成效的讨论常常受到意识形态先入之见的影响，这些先入之见阻碍了采用工程隐喻来理解并最终重塑生命系统，而这正是合成生物学所期望的。然而，一些克服僵局的可能方法是可行的。与莫诺关于目的论（终极性/目的）与目的法则（终极性/目的的表象）的进化悖论并行，可以思考技术（理性工程）与技术法则（理性工程的表象）之间的机制悖论，所有这些都是为了理解使生命系统能够在时间和空间中作为物理化学实体发挥作用的关系逻辑。因此，本文通过工程隐喻的视角提出了一种激进的合成生物学观点。
