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REVIEW article
Front. Synth. Biol.
Sec. Genetic Systems and Circuit Design
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsybi.2025.1548572
This article is part of the Research Topic Engineering the Future: Advances in Synthetic Gene Regulatory Networks View all articles
Genetic Circuits in Synthetic Biology: Broadening the Toolbox of Regulatory Devices
Provisionally accepted- 1 Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 2 Molecular Biotechnology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
- 3 Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
Devices sensing inputs and generating outputs are fundamental regulatory units, and as such are the basis of more complex regulatory networks. We provide an overview of regulatory devices used as fundamental regulatory building blocks in synthetic biology, and how complex genetic circuitry is being constructed from them. We first comprehensively explore devices operating at different levels of gene regulation, with action modes on the DNA sequence, to transcriptional, translational and post-translational control. We then discuss design principles of constructing genetic circuits from basic regulatory units, addressing challenges such as orthogonality, context-dependence, noise, and complexity. We present examples of genetic circuitry, including bistable switches, logic gates, signal amplification, memory devices and circuitry for biocomputation. How artificial genetic circuitry can be useful in real-life applications is illustrated with examples from bioproduction, living therapeutics, and biosafety. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the toolbox of regulatory devices and a profound understanding of their potential for constructing diverse genetic circuits and their applications.
Keywords: Genetic circuit design, Gene expression control, Synthetic parts, Regulatory parts, Synthetic gene networks, transcriptional and translational control
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Müller, Arndt and Hoffmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Katja M. Arndt, Molecular Biotechnology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
Stefan A. Hoffmann, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, 6708 PB, Netherlands
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.