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Title: A suppressor tRNA-mediated feedforward loop eliminates leaky gene expression in bacteria
Abstract Ligand-inducible genetic systems are the mainstay of synthetic biology, allowing gene expression to be controlled by the presence of a small molecule. However, ‘leaky’ gene expression in the absence of inducer remains a persistent problem. We developed a leak dampener tool that drastically reduces the leak of inducible genetic systems while retaining signal in Escherichia coli. Our system relies on a coherent feedforward loop featuring a suppressor tRNA that enables conditional readthrough of silent non-sense mutations in a regulated gene, and this approach can be applied to any ligand-inducible transcription factor. We demonstrate proof-of-principle of our system with the lactate biosensor LldR and the arabinose biosensor AraC, which displayed a 70-fold and 630-fold change in output after induction of a fluorescence reporter, respectively, without any background subtraction. Application of the tool to an arabinose-inducible mutagenesis plasmid led to a 540-fold change in its output after induction, with leak decreasing to the level of background mutagenesis. This study provides a modular tool for reducing leak and improving the fold-induction within genetic circuits, demonstrated here using two types of biosensors relevant to cancer detection and genetic engineering.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1662290
PAR ID:
10248860
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Nucleic Acids Research
Volume:
49
Issue:
5
ISSN:
0305-1048
Page Range / eLocation ID:
e25 to e25
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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