Symplectic Biology is supported by : symplectic biology Editorial Board FONDATION FOURMENTIN-GUILBERT rrrapid research notes in Editors in Chief 2, avenue du Pavé Neuf, Noisy le Grand systems and synthetic biology France Antoine Danchin Scienti c Advisor, CEA / Genoscope, Evry, France President AMAbiotics SAS Honorary Professor Faculty of Medicine, The University of http://www.symplecticbiology.org/ Hong Kong Victor de Lorenzo Head, Molecular Environmental Microbiology Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, CSIC, Madrid, Spain AMAbiotics SAS 5, rue Henri Desbruères, Evry, France Editors Sigal Ben-Yehuda, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel MICROME a FP7 european Philippe M. Binder, University of Hawaii, Hilo, USA research consortium microme Jesús Blázquez, Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, CSIC, Madrid, Spain Nediljko Budisa, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany Jason W. Chin, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK FIRST ISSUE Gang Fang, MBB Department, Yale University, New Haven, USA A sequel to “Cells need safety valves” Jian-Dong Huang, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Eric Fourmentin & Antoine Danchin The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Feb 2010 Jose Ignacio Jimenez, Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology, Cambridge, USA Characterization of NrnA homologs from Frédérique Lisacek, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Geneva, Switzerland Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycoplama pneumoniae Philippe Marlière, Global Bionergies, Evry, France Guillaume Postic, Antoine Danchin & Undine Mechold Jul 2010 Kenta Nakai, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Christos Ouzounis, The Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas, CHALLENGES Thessalonika, Greece Is the synteny around the pyrH gene in bacterial genomes Sven Pank e , ETH Zurich, Department of Biosystems Science signi cant? and Engineering, Basel, Switzerland Stanislas Noria Apr 2010 Manuel Porcar, Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

Alfonso Valencia, Structural Biology and BioComputing Programme CONTACT Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain Stanislas Noria Anil Wipat, School of Computing Science, Claremont Tower, (Editorial Of ce) ...... [email protected] University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK Phone: +33 1 6091 7882 J. Tze-Fei Wong, Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University Fax: +33 1 6091 7899 of Science & Technology, Hong Kong, China Gang Fang ...... [email protected] Submissions Huanming Yang, BGI, Beishan Industrial Zone, Yantian Disctrict, MODERATOR http://knol.google.com/k/symplectic-biology# Shenzhen, China David Lipman ...... [email protected] symplectic biology Symplectic Biology Symplectic Biology rapid research notes in accepts contributions from a broad range offers a stimulating combination of the following: of disciplines and covers topics such as: systems and synthetic biology Research articles: The cell machine: Comprehensive, fully documented reports of original Concrete scenarios for the origin of life, with emphasis on metabolism research. Emphasis will be placed on the quality of the Materials and http://www.symplecticbiology.org/ of molecules not readily present under standard abiotic conditions Methods sections meant to permit rapid reproduction of experiments (coenzymes, nucleotides, lipids, basic amino acids) Research and teaching: Reproduction of networks of objects Critical follow up of the iGEM and similar experiences in synthetic and Evolution and ageing of peptides, proteins, RNA, their modications systems biology, with emphasis on long-term successes in SB Aims and Scope and interactions constructions and identification of bottlenecks Symplectic Biology is a peer-reviewed journal fostering the integration of Assembly and function of macromolecular complexes Invited Rapid Reviews: Peer-reviewed critical evaluations of the Synthetic Biology with the more traditional Systems Biology. existing state of knowledge on emerging concepts or experimental Functional promiscuity technologies relevant to the scope of the journal It aims at rapid publication of novel experiments and concepts.

Nanomachines: molecular motors, cytoskeletal dynamics, cellular "Challenge in Symplectic Biology" papers: As its name indicates (« symplectic » is the greek equivalent of the latin « complex » import and export, cell division without its fuzzy connotations) it endeavours to integrate physics, chemistry, On a regular basis Symplectic Biology will offer challenges to Synthetic information sciences and other mathematics-based disciplines into a Single molecule studies and nanobiotechnology and Systems Biology approaches, i.e. conceptual and experimental rapidly accessible network of experiments and models permitting to combine questions that need to be solved to permit developments of the in a challenging way the various aspects of what is traditionally named Metabolism, with emphasis on evolution of metabolism and novel discipline. the complexity of living phenomena. Its primary aim is to promote construction metabolic pathways. Typically novel pathways for biofuels or complex of synthetic life via the quantitative characterization plant molecules will be considered in priority Recognition of the work of investigators who solved the challenges and understanding of biological systems at di erent levels of integration, will be provided by awards ranging from the role of structure and dynamics of a single molecule to the Generation of biologically relevant patterns organization and evolution of molecular and cellular networks.

Symplectic Biology is peer-reviewed The cell program: Articles will only be accepted if presenting novel and original Comparative genomics with emphasis on the genes coding for the information shown to be of interest to the community of investigators essential functions of life involved in the domains covered by the scope of the journal

Replication of the genetic program with emphasis on proof-reading, The aim of the journal is rapid publication: the authors need to prepare quality control and the architecture of the chromosome their articles so that they could be published rapidly, i.e. after minor modifications The logics of gene regulation, with emphasis on the similarities and discrepancies with engineering approaches In order to make the procedure as transparent as possible, the comments of the reviewers are published on-line together with the Construction of ad hoc metabolic pathways with emphasis on article heterologous expression

Submissions http://knol.google.com/k/symplectic-biology#