Theory 22/The rival is the same mechanism at another scale/Synthetic biology
Build It or Predict It?
The claim
The minimal gene set can only be established by constructing a cell, because redundancy masks essentiality.
01The rival explanation
Essentiality screens already identify the required set, and construction merely confirms it.
02What would tell them apart
Construction predicts a genome smaller than the union of essentiality predictions, because screens miss synthetic relationships.
03Prediction
Built genomes should be smaller than predicted sets.
04Refutation
If built genomes match predictions, the rival wins.