Revolutionizing agriculture with synthetic biology

Eleanore T Wurtzel; Claudia E Vickers; Andrew D Hanson; A Harvey Millar; Mark Cooper; Kai P Voss-Fels; Pablo I Nikel; Tobias J Erb

doi:10.1038/s41477-019-0539-0

Revolutionizing agriculture with synthetic biology

Nat Plants. 2019 Dec;5(12):1207-1210. doi: 10.1038/s41477-019-0539-0. Epub 2019 Nov 18.

Authors

Eleanore T Wurtzel^{1

2}, Claudia E Vickers^{3

4}, Andrew D Hanson⁵, A Harvey Millar⁶, Mark Cooper⁷, Kai P Voss-Fels⁷, Pablo I Nikel⁸, Tobias J Erb^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA. wurtzel@lehman.cuny.edu.
² Graduate School and University Center-CUNY, New York, NY, USA. wurtzel@lehman.cuny.edu.
³ CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, Canberra, Australia. Claudia.Vickers@csiro.au.
⁴ Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Claudia.Vickers@csiro.au.
⁵ Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. adha@ufl.edu.
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, School of Molecular Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
⁷ Queensland Alliance for Agriculture & Food Innovation, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
⁸ Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark.
⁹ Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Marburg, Germany.
¹⁰ LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology, Marburg, Germany.

PMID: 31740769
DOI: 10.1038/s41477-019-0539-0

Abstract

Synthetic biology is here to stay and will transform agriculture if given the chance. The huge challenges facing food, fuel and chemical production make it vital to give synthetic biology that chance-notwithstanding the shifts in mindset, training and infrastructure investment this demands. Here, we assess opportunities for agricultural synthetic biology and ways to remove barriers to their realization.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Crops, Agricultural / genetics*
Crops, Agricultural / growth & development
Crops, Agricultural / metabolism
Evolution, Molecular
Plant Proteins / genetics
Plant Proteins / metabolism
Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics*
Plants, Genetically Modified / growth & development
Plants, Genetically Modified / metabolism
Synthetic Biology*

Substances

Plant Proteins