Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology

Abstract

This paper analyzes the notion of possibility in biology and demonstrates how synthetic biology can provide understanding on the modal dimension of biological systems. Among modal concepts, biological possibility has received surprisingly little explicit treatment in the philosophy of science. The aim of this paper is to argue for the importance of the notion of biological possibility by showing how it provides both a philosophically and biologically fruitful category as well as introducing a new practically grounded way for its assessment. More precisely, we argue that synthetic biology can provide tools to scientifically anchor reasoning about biological possibilities. Two prominent strategies for this are identified and analyzed: the design of functionally new-to-nature systems and the redesign of naturally occurring systems and their parts. These approaches allow synthetic biologists to explore systems that are not normally evolutionarily accessible and draw modal inferences that extend in scope beyond their token realizations. Subsequently, these results in synthetic biology can also be relevant for discussions on evolutionary contingency, providing new methods and insight to the study of various sources of unactualized possibilities in biology.

Evolving Perspective on the Origin and Diversification of Cellular Life and the Virosphere

“…Progress in this research area will allow for a better understanding of the relation between genotype and phenotype (i.e., genotype-phenotype map [ Pigliucci 2010 ; Wagner and Zhang 2011 ; Ahnert 2017 ]) thereby clarifying the landscape of possible genetic changes. Advances in high-throughput phenotyping and genotyping, targeted genome editing, and single cell approaches ( Prakadan et al 2017 ; Adli 2018 ; Ohan et al 2019 ; Zahir et al 2019 ; Acin-Albiac et al 2020 ; Kaster and Sobol 2020 ; McCarty et al 2020 ; Arroyo-Olarte et al 2021 ; Rubin et al 2022 ), evolutionary synthetic biology ( Peisajovich 2012 ; Baier and Schaerli 2021 ; Ijäs and Koskinen 2021 ), and experimental evolution ( Van den Bergh et al 2018 ), are currently driving progress in the exploration of the genotype–phenotype map. Yet, conceptual, and theoretical developments need to follow technological advances to derive the principles determining the evolution of (micro)organisms.…”