Synthetic bugs on the loose: containment options for deeply engineered (micro)organisms

Synthetic Biology (SynBio) has brought up again questions on the environmental fate of microorganisms carrying genetic modifications. The growing capacity of editing genomes for deployment of man-made programs opens unprecedented biotechnological opportunities. But the same exacerbate concerns regarding fortuitous or deliberate releases to the natural medium. Most approaches to tackle these worries involve endowing SynBio agents with containment devices for halting horizontal gene transfer and survival of the live agents only at given times and places. Genetic circuits and trophic restraint schemes have been proposed to this end in the pursuit of complete containment. The most promising include adoption of alternative genetic codes and/or dependency on xenobiotic amino acids and nucleotides. But the field has to still overcome serious bottlenecks.