The Prospects of Artificial Endosymbioses

By RYAN KERNEY, Zakiya Whatley, Sarah Rivera, David Hewitt

The use of beneficial microbes holds promise for public health and food production, but has trade-offs that are not yet fully understood.

Agriculture Biology Engineering Ethics Evolution Policy Technology

This Article From Issue

January-February 2017

Volume 105, Number 1

Page 36

DOI: 10.1511/2017.124.36

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In the engineering of biological systems, it can be said unequivocally that art imitates nature. Nearly all efforts to control human health, the environment, and agriculture involve the appropriation of evolutionary processes.

Homesite — Many aquatic and marine invertebrates, such as this hydra, have coevolved with endosymbiotic algae that produce food for the host. As biologists better understand these relationships, the potential grows for moving endosymbionts between organisms to transfer or establish their benefits in a new association.

**© Michael Plewka, plingfactory.de**

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