Prokaryotic cell-free systems are currently heavily used for the production of protein that can be otherwise challenging to produce in cells. However, historically cell-free systems were used to explore natural phenomena before the advent of genetic modification and transformation technology. Recently, synthetic biology has seen a resurgence of this historical use of cell-free systems as a prototyping tool of synthetic and natural genetic circuits. For these cell-free systems to be effective prototyping tools, an understanding of cell-free system mechanics must be established that is not purely protein-expression driven. Here we discuss the development of E. coli-based cell-free systems, with an emphasis on documenting published extract and energy preparation methods into a uniform format. We also discuss additional considerations when applying cell-free systems to synthetic biology.

Download data

• Downloaded 2,967 times
• Download rankings, all-time:
  • Site-wide: 3,880
  • In synthetic biology: 37
• Year to date:
  • Site-wide: 37,526
• Since beginning of last month:
  • Site-wide: 37,526

Altmetric data

Downloads over time

Distribution of downloads per paper, site-wide