Figure 1.

Synthetic and systems biology provide complementary information. Different -omics methods can obtain top-down systems biology data about the ensemble or organisms and biomolecules present in an environmental sample. In contrast, biosensors created using synthetic biology provide high resolution information about the reactions mediated by individual community members, such as their metabolic activities, perceived concentrations of molecules, time-dependent production or consumption of specific biomolecules, and environmental chemical processing.