Rugbjerg P, Genee HJ, Jensen K, Sarup-Lytzen K, Sommer MOA. Molecular Buffers Permit Sensitivity Tuning and Inversion of Riboswitch Signals.
ACS Synth Biol 2016;
5:632-8. [PMID:
27138234 PMCID:
PMC4949582 DOI:
10.1021/acssynbio.5b00213]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
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Predictable integration
of foreign biological signals and parts
remains a key challenge in the systematic engineering of synthetic
cellular actuations, and general methods to improve signal transduction
and sensitivity are needed. To address this problem we modeled and
built a molecular signal buffer network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae inspired by chemical pH buffer systems. The molecular buffer system
context-insulates a riboswitch enabling synthetic control of colony
formation and modular signal manipulations. The riboswitch signal
is relayed to a transcriptional activation domain of a split transcription
factor, while interacting DNA-binding domains mediate the transduction
of signal and form an interacting molecular buffer. The molecular
buffer system enables modular signal inversion through integration
with repressor modules. Further, tuning of input sensitivity was achieved
through perturbation of the buffer pair ratio guided by a mathematical
model. Such buffered signal tuning networks will be useful for domestication
of RNA-based sensors enabling tunable outputs and library-wide selections
for drug discovery and metabolic engineering.
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