Evaluation exploration of the impacts of synthetic biotechnologies on biodiversity

Synthetic biotechnologies are recently emerged novel biotechnologies, and represent the new stage of modern biotechnology. A series of important progresses have been achieved in many fields such as microbial cell factories, synthetic microbial consortium, artificial genomes synthesis, genome editing and gene drives, thanks to the intensive support from the government, industrial and academia in many countries. With the further growth of research, development and application of synthetic biotechnologies, the evaluation of their impacts on the biodiversity of the ecosystem, which is one of the critical issues related to human society, becomes a very important topic. Based on the evaluation principle of preventing and reducing negative risks, promoting beneficial development and application, and protecting biodiversity, the impact of research, development and application of synthetic biotechnology on biodiversity was qualitatively analyzed. A two-dimensional evaluation method was adopted, which comprehensively considered the proper application scope of synthetic biotechnologies and the safety of products, components and organisms based on synthetic biotechnology. The countermeasures and suggestions for coping with potential risks of synthetic biotechnology on biodiversity were put forward, so as to provide references for the healthy development of synthetic biotechnologies for the prosper of human society.