Synthetic biology: a new approach to study biological pattern formation

The principles and molecular mechanisms underlying biological pattern formation are difficult to elucidate in most cases due to the overwhelming physiologic complexity associated with the natural context. The understanding of a particular mechanism, not to speak of underlying universal principles, is difficult due to the diversity and uncertainty of the biological systems. Although current genetic and biochemical approaches have greatly advanced our understanding of pattern formation, the progress mainly relies on experimental phenotypes obtained from time-consuming studies of gain or loss of function mutants. It is prevailingly considered that synthetic biology will come to the application age, but more importantly synthetic biology can be used to understand the life. Using periodic stripe pattern formation as a paradigm, we discuss how to apply synthetic biology in understanding biological pattern formation and hereafter foster the applications like tissue engineering.