2022/06/27 by Vı́ctor de Lorenzo · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience #Gene Regulatory Network Analysis #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
paper · doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0395
openalex publication_date 2022/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Contemporary synthetic biology-based biotechnologies are generating tools and strategies for reprogramming genomes for specific purposes, including improvement and/or creation of microbial processes for tackling climate change. While such activities typically work well at a laboratory or bioreactor scale, the challenge of their extensive delivery to multiple spatio-temporal dimensions has hardly been tackled thus far. This state of affairs creates a research niche for what could be called Environmental Galenics (EG), i.e. the science and technology of releasing designed biological agents into deteriorated ecosystems for the sake of their safe and effective recovery. Such endeavour asks not just for an optimal performance of the biological activity at stake, but also the material form and formulation of the agents, their propagation and their interplay with the physico-chemical scenario where they are expected to perform. EG also encompasses adopting available physical carriers of microorganisms and channels of horizontal gene transfer as potential paths for spreading beneficial activities through environmental microbiomes. While some of these propositions may sound unsettling to anti-genetically modified organisms sensitivities, they may also fall under the tag of TINA (there is no alternative) technologies in the cases where a mere reduction of emissions will not help the revitalization of irreversibly lost ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ecological complexity and the biosphere: the next 30 years’.