Improvement of Synthetic Biology Tools for DNA Editing

The unpredictability and complexity of biological systems limit the development of economically efficient bio-based production processes that rely on renewable carbon sources and are essential for biosustainability and environmental protection. Synthetic biology (synbio) aims at making biology easier to engineer and addresses these challenges.The ability to systematically construct, modify and tune biological systems from fully characterized biological components, or parts, is crucial to the success of synbio projects.

This thesis aims at contributing to standardization and part sharing with the development and improvement of DNA editing strategies,compatible with other DNA assembly methodologies, genome engineering and,eventually, automation processes. Expanding and optimizing the synbio toolkit has important applications in pathway optimization for metabolic engineering, design and characterization of gene circuits, synthesis of whole genomes and natural product discovery.

In line with this, it is also described in this thesis how discovery of new cytochromes P450 (CYPs) from marine bacteria could benefit industrial processes.