Designer endosymbionts: Converting free-living bacteria into organelles
Rebecca S. Meaney, Samir Hamadache, Maximillian P. M. Soltysiak, Bogumil J. Karas
Abstract
An emerging frontier in synthetic biology involves the engineering of interspecies relationships, one of which could result in the development of novel organelles. The endosymbiotic theory is the most widely accepted model for the evolutionary origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts, asserting that these organelles descended from free-living bacteria. Imitating this process experimentally, which we refer to herein as directed endosymbiosis, could enable the development of an entirely new class of organisms with synthetic organelles. In this review, we discuss principles and strategies for directed endosymbiosis and highlight current developments. We also describe several bacterial species as candidates for converting into organelles that would have interesting applications.