Chapter 3 - Genome Engineering Tools in Plant Synthetic Biology

Abstract

Plant synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field of science which is expected to significantly contribute to the food, fiber, and fuel deficit because of fast increasing world population. By combining the fundamental understanding of plant biology with technological advancement and genetic engineering principles, plant synthetic biology is poised to play a major role in accelerating the development of novel agronomical traits. The recent development of efficient design and modeling-related computational tools, improved DNA synthesis and assembly technologies to generate complicated DNA constructs, and cutting-edge next-generation sequencing technologies have reduced many of the obstacles of plant synthetic biology. In this chapter we have discussed the principles, methods of synthetic biology, and tools that can be applied to engineer various stages of central dogma keeping plant synthetic biology in perspective. We have also focused on the future applications and challenges of plant synthetic biology.