The bottom-up approach of synthetic biology is driven by the need for a deepened understanding of the interaction of functional modules in living or artificial systems. The hope is that the gained knowledge will help to optimize existing systems, or, as one long-term goal of synthetic biology, to build up artificial cell-like entities from single building blocks. This article focuses on a system theoretic approach to synthetic biology, and in particular on the construction of a protocell model by the modular assembling process. Different models for an in-silico protocell are described that combines experimentally validated biological subsystems with theoretical assumptions. The in-silico protocell that is characterized consists of three different functional modules: the membrane proliferating module, the membrane contraction module, and a positioning module. Additional theoretical hypotheses are tested in order to merge the module models to one protocell model with synchronously working parts. The different approaches used here for developing a protocell model could be helpful for assembling the different modules to one system in reality. Depending on the objective one wants to achieve a more or less detailed modeling approach is appropriate.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.