Specifying Combinatorial Designs with the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL)

As improvements in DNA synthesis
technology and assembly methods
make combinatorial assembly of genetic constructs increasingly accessible,
methods for representing genetic constructs likewise need to improve
to handle the exponential growth of combinatorial design space. To
this end, we present a community accepted extension of the SBOL data
standard that allows for the efficient and flexible encoding of combinatorial
designs. This extension includes data structures for representing
genetic designs with “variable” components that can
be implemented by choosing one of many linked designs for existing
genetic parts or constructs. We demonstrate the representational power
of the SBOL combinatorial design extension through case studies on
metabolic pathway design and genetic circuit design, and we report
the expansion of the SBOLDesigner software tool to support users in
creating and modifying combinatorial designs in SBOL.