# Unknown unknowns: essential genes in quest for function

Review · Danchin A, Fang G

- Archive id: doi:10.1111/1751-7915.12384
- Published: 2016-07-20
- Venue: Microbial biotechnology
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.12384
- PMID: 27435445
- PMCID: PMC4993169
- Citations: 58
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.12384
- PDF: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4993169/pdf
- Provenance: europepmc

## Abstract

The experimental design of a minimal synthetic genome revealed the presence of a large number of genes without ascribed function, in part because the abstract laws of life must be implemented within ad hoc material contraptions. Creating a function needs recruitment of some pre-existing structure and this reveals kludges in their set-up and history. Here, we show that looking for functions as an engineer would help in discovery of a significant number of those, proposed together with conceptual handles allowing investigators to pursue this endeavour in other contexts.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)._

Topics: [Synthetic Biology & Genome Engineering](https://space-kitty.com/topics/synthetic-biology)

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