Synthetic threads through the web of life

CRISPR-Cas gene editing tools have brought us to an era of synthetic biology that will change the world. Excitement over the breakthroughs these tools have enabled in biology and medicine is balanced, justifiably, by concern over how their applications might go wrong in open environments. We do not know how genomic processes (including regulatory and epigenetic processes), evolutionary change, ecosystem interactions, and other higher order processes will affect traits, fitness, and impacts of edited organisms in nature. However, anticipating the spread, change, and impacts of edited traits or organisms in heterogeneous, changing environments is particularly important with “gene drives on the horizon.” To anticipate how “synthetic threads” will affect the web of life on Earth, scientists must confront complex system interactions across many levels of biological organization. Currently, we lack plans, infrastructure, and funding for field science and scientists to track new synthetic organisms, with or without gene drives, as they move through open environments.