Perspective: If we want to save the natural world, we’re going to have to change it
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This transformative work is a product of synthetic biology, a suite of technologies that allow us to engineer organisms’ genomes directly. Combining computer science with genomic analysis and gene editing, this emerging field involves deciphering which genes have some beneficial effect in one organism — such as the acid resistance that could save the American chestnut — and inserting those genes into another.
With synthetic biology, by contrast, we can work with far greater precision, directly targeting genes that result in beneficial characteristics, meaning we can often introduce a single, specific change without compromising the other DNA that has allowed an organism to thrive.
technology to effectively sterilize malarial mosquitoes or tortoise-killing invasive rodents, solving a pressing problem without risking harm to the rest of an ecosystem.To date, conservation-minded synthetic biology has had the most success in agriculture. The papaya industry in Hawaii, for example, was
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