Design And Control Of Self-Spreading Genetic Elements Across The Tree Of Life

Abstract

To truly engineer biology, we need to take full advantage of self-replication and evolvability. This means specifically designing systems to follow a desired evolutionary trajectory in uncontrolled environments. Understanding and engineering biological emergence is a critical step towards actualizing such design. Self-spreading genetic elements are comparatively simple systems blurring the definition of life. They exhibit self-replication, evolvability, and emergence in their dynamics, making them the perfect candidate model systems in which to probe this fledgling field. This thesis marks progress towards such higher-order biological engineering using self-spreading genetic elements as model systems. Their behaviour is investigated at various scales, ranging from viral propagation to ecological engineering. The new knowledge is then applied to iterate on the design of self-spreading genetic elements to prevent emergence of resistance and to identify genetic context effects.