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ACS Chem. Biol.,
3 (1),
27–29
10.1021/cb700256w
Web Release Date: January 18, 2008
Copyright © 2008 American Chemical Society
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A Whole More Than the Sum of Its Synthetic Parts
Jeffrey V. Wong, Hao Song, and Lingchong You*
Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
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*Corresponding author, you#duke.edu.
Synthetic biology is the realization of systems with desired behavior using biological materials. A recent addition to the field is a bipartite consortium of the bacterium Escherichia coli in which each species harbors complementary gene circuits that actuate only when both are present above a critical density. This bacterial “consensus” system, functional in liquid, solid, and biofilm niches, represents a novel strategy that raises the bar in terms of the specificity and complexity of tasks performed by engineered organisms.
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