Opinion

Evolution, ecology and the engineered organism: lessons for synthetic biology

Jeffrey M Skerker1,2, Julius B Lucks1,2 and Adam P Arkin1,2*

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

2 Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

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Genome Biology 2009, 10:114 doi:10.1186/gb-2009-10-11-114

Published: 30 November 2009

Abstract

As the scope and complexity of synthetic biology grows, an understanding of evolution and ecology will be critical to its success.