The effect of metabolic stress on genome stability of a synthetic biology chassis Escherichia coli K12 strain.

Background Synthetic organism-based biotechnologies are increasingly being proposed for environmental applications, such as in situ sensing. Typically, the novel function of these organisms is delivered by compiling genetic fragments in the genome of a chassis organism. To behave predictably, these chassis are designed with reduced genomes that minimize biological complexity. However, in these proposed applications it is expected that even when contained within a device, organisms will be exposed to fluctuating, often stressful, conditions and it is not clear whether their genomes will retain stability.