Synthetic Biology and engineering of plant systems.

Synthetic Biology is an emerging field that employs engineering principles for constructing genetic systems. The approach is based on the use of well characterised and reusable components, and numerical models for the design of biological circuits – in a way that has become routine in other fields of engineering. This has proved a more robust way to construct novel regulatory networks in microbial systems, including synthetic oscillators, switches, logic gates, intercellular signaling systems and metabolic networks. Synthetic Biology is providing an conceptual and practical framework for the systematic engineering of gene expression and behaviour in microbes.

Synthetic Biology approaches show great potential for the engineering of multicellular systems. 
(1) The greatest diversity of cell types and biochemical specialisation is found in multicellular systems, 
(2) the molecular basis of cell fate determination is increasingly well understood, and 
(3) it is feasible to consider creating new tissues or organs with specialized biosynthetic or storage functions by remodelling the distribution of existing cell types.

Of all multicellular organisms, plants are the obvious first target for this type of approach. Plants possess indeterminate and modular body plans, have a wide spectrum of biosynthetic activities, can be genetically manipulated, and are widely used in crop systems for production of biomass, food, polymers, drugs and fuels.