Engineered DNA will slow the growth of a host cell if it redirects limiting resources or otherwise interferes with homeostasis. Here the authors measure how 301 BioBrick plasmids affected Escherichia coli growth and found that 19.6% were burdensome, primarily because they depleted the limited gene expression resources of host cells.
- Noor Radde
- Genevieve A. Mortensen
- Jeffrey E. Barrick
