Sharing Structure and Function in Biological Design with SBOL 2.0

The
Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) is a standard that enables
collaborative engineering of biological systems across different institutions
and tools. SBOL is developed through careful consideration of recent
synthetic biology trends, real use cases, and consensus among leading
researchers in the field and members of commercial biotechnology enterprises.
We demonstrate and discuss how a set of SBOL-enabled software tools
can form an integrated, cross-organizational workflow to recapitulate
the design of one of the largest published genetic circuits to date,
a 4-input AND sensor. This design encompasses the structural components
of the system, such as its DNA, RNA, small molecules, and proteins,
as well as the interactions between these components that determine
the system’s behavior/function. The demonstrated workflow and
resulting circuit design illustrate the utility of SBOL 2.0 in automating
the exchange of structural and functional specifications for genetic
parts, devices, and the biological systems in which they operate.