Abstract
Yeast research is entering into a new period of scholarship, with new scientific tools, new questions to ask, and new issues to consider. The politics of emerging and critical technology can no longer be separated from the pursuit of basic science in fields, such as synthetic biology and engineering biology. Given the intensifying race for technological leadership, yeast research is likely to attract significant investment from government, and that it offers huge opportunities to the curious minded from a basic research standpoint. This article provides an overview of new directions in yeast research, and places these trends in their geopolitical context. At the highest level, yeast research is situated within the ongoing convergence of the life sciences with the information sciences. This convergent effect is most strongly pronounced in areas of AI-enabled tools for the life sciences, and the creation of synthetic genomes, minimal genomes, pan-genomes, neochromosomes and metagenomes using computer assisted design tools and methodologies. Synthetic yeast futures encompass basic and applied science questions that will be of intense interest to government and non-government funding sources. It is essential for the yeast research community to map and understand the context of their research in order to ensure their collaborations turn global challenges into research opportunities.
Keywords: Minimal genome; supernumerary neochromosome; metagenome, pan-genome; synthetic genome; synthetic communities; Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Yeast 2.0
1  FROM SPIKE PROTEINS TO SPIKING PRICES AND A PERMACRISIS
The first three years of this decade put the world to the test. From a devastating global pandemic, collapsing supply chains, extreme weather patterns, and intensifying geopolitical tensions to outright war, soaring energy and food prices, escalating debt, inflation and a looming global recession (Figure 1), today’s world is faced with a ‘permacrisis’―an extended period of significant instability and insecurity (Vanhercke et al., 2022). Assumptions of a rules-based world order that held for decades―that agreed red lines of nuclear weapons won’t be crossed, that international borders should be inviolable, that geopolitical rivalries won’t weaponise critical supply chains or choke free trade, that inflation will stay low, and that the lights will stay on―have all been shaken to the core (www.economist.com/the-world-ahead; Gyngell, 2017). The ‘peace dividend’ nations enjoyed since the end of the cold war―releasing huge amounts of funds from defence to spend on other societal needs―is ending. Within the context of current rising geopolitical competition, the world is once again equipping itself for future geopolitical challenges between rivals (Khan et al., 2022).
The world has changed and continues to change, and so with this change does the technology that continues to shape our world into the future. The development of critical technologies, such as synthetic biology and the way we conduct frontier-shifting and future-shaping synthetic yeast research, will too be influenced by geopolitics. Examples include research into biofuels (Georgianna and Mayfield, 2012), which will be influenced by the reliability of global supply chains, and the necessity for unfettered access to advanced technologies, which are deemed critical to nations’ economic prosperity, security and sovereignty.
One branch of science that has sparked interest, hope, and disputation among researchers, governments, policymakers, regulators and commentators is synthetic biology (Kitney, 2021). Looking beyond the bounds of this developing field into its wider geopolitical context, the intersection of science, technology and policy with changing great power dynamics has amplified existing fragilities in the international system. This fragility is fracturing globalization along political lines, producing more tension, more competition and increased fragmentation. It is not the first time that science has encountered this trend in international relations (Lieber, 2019), and for yeast research, with its long and storied history, it is not the first time that the community of scholars and practitioners has needed to respond to changed political winds. The question many are asking in the scientific community is: how will international collaboration continue given the current international context? This a complex question given that investment in research and development (R&D) is increasing at a rapid rate, driven by both new philanthropic investors and their funding priorities, but also by government competition and their political priorities. Technological competition is all but baked into the global economy for the next decade (Lewis, 2018). It is likely that these increased R&D investments would deliver unintended beneficial technological developments for synthetic biology and yeast researchers.
How can synthetic yeast research and yeast researchers ride this wave? Yeast remains one of the most versatile and resilient hosts for traditional and novel industrial use cases. Just as yeast must be part of the solution to, for example, viticulture and winemaking in the face of climate change, so must yeast be part of the solution to scaling biomanufacturing globally (Naseri, 2023). As the bioethanol, baking, brewing, distilling and winemaking industries, along with the agricultural economies of ancient history relied on yeast (Pretorius et al., 2012), so too will the emerging bioeconomy find its backbone in this simple, single-celled fungus. While the global environment appears to be increasingly competitive, increasingly fractious, and far more dynamic―this is a source of optimism for yeast research and only serves to highlight the ongoing contributions the yeast community can meaningfully make to human progress. However, to take full advantage of the global macro changes, the yeast research community needs to fully capitalize on the tools and methodologies of synthetic biology and other related fields (EBRC, 2019). This must begin with the yeast community having a good answer for why anyone, government, corporate or philanthropist, should invest in synthetic biology-based yeast research at all.