A decade of SBOL Visual: growing adoption of a diagram standard for engineering biology

TL;DR

Over ten years, SBOL Visual has evolved from a basic set of glyphs to a comprehensive diagram standard, significantly enhancing communication and interoperability in synthetic biology.

Contribution

This paper provides a comprehensive review of SBOL Visual's evolution, adoption, and future prospects over the past decade.

Findings

Steady increase in adoption across scientific publications

Development of supporting visualization tools

Ongoing efforts to improve clarity and accessibility

Abstract

Standards play a crucial role in ensuring consistency, interoperability, and efficiency of communication across various disciplines. In the field of synthetic biology, the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual standard was introduced in 2013 to establish a structured framework for visually representing genetic designs. Over the past decade, SBOL Visual has evolved from a simple set of 21 glyphs into a comprehensive diagrammatic language for biological designs. This perspective reflects on the first ten years of SBOL Visual, tracing its evolution from inception to version 3.0. We examine the standard's adoption over time, highlighting its growing use in scientific publications, the development of supporting visualization tools, and ongoing efforts to enhance clarity and accessibility in communicating genetic design information. While trends in adoption show steady increases, achieving full compliance and use of best practices will require additional efforts. Looking ahead, the continued refinement of SBOL Visual and broader community engagement will be essential to ensuring its long-term value as the field of synthetic biology develops.