Important Concept Definitions
- Biosystem - Any system composed of biological entities and their surrounding environment, bounded within a region of space. For example, a culture of a microorganism and its growth media within a fermentation vessel, or the complex consortia of organisms living in a volume of soil.
- Engineered Biosystem - A biosystem containing at least one synthetic, designed biological component with an intended function. For example, a culture of a microorganism containing a synthetic gene circuit and its growth media within a fermentation vessel.
- Biosystem Composition - The exact makeup of the biosystem. We divide this into environmental composition (the molecules defining the environment surrounding the biological entities), host composition (the genotype and current phenotype of the host organism), and in the case of engineered biosystems, construct composition (for example, the nucleic acids composing the synthetic gene circuit).
- Biosystem Function - A measurable ability, outcome or effect of the biosystem. For engineered biosystems, this will primarily be the purpose for which the biosystem was designed. Examples could include the rate at which a biosystem converts a substrate to a product, the sensitivity and selectivity of a biosystem in detecting an analyte, or the efficacy of a biosystem in destroying a pathogenic species.
- Function Contexts - Contextual effects which affect the biosystem function. A biosystem may give a different functional output in the context of a different construct composition, host composition or environmental composition, and these three aspects and their interactions must be considered holistically to understand the biosystem function.