Advanced search
Start date
Betweenand
(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Expanding the Logic of Bacterial Promoters Using Engineered Overlapping Operators for Global Regulators

Full text
Author(s):
Guazzaroni, Maria-Eugenia [1] ; Silva-Rocha, Rafael [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Sao Paulo, FFCLRP, Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil
[2] Univ Sao Paulo, FMRP, Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY; v. 3, n. 9, p. 666-675, SEP 2014.
Web of Science Citations: 9
Abstract

The understanding of how the architecture of cis-regulatory elements at bacterial promoters determines their final output is of central interest in modern biology. In this work, we attempt to gain insight into this process by analyzing complex promoter architectures in the model organism Escherichia coli. By focusing on the relationship between different TFs at the genomic scale in terms of their binding site arrangement and their effect on the target promoters, we found no strong constraint limiting the combinatorial assembly of TF pairs in E. coli. More strikingly, overlapping binding sites were found equally associated with both equivalent (both TFs have the same this information on hand, we set an in salt approach to design overlapping sites for three global regulators (GRs) of E. coli, specifically CRP, Fis, and IHF. Using random sequence assembly and an evolutionary algorithm, we were able to identify potential overlapping operators for all TF pairs. In order to validate our prediction, we constructed two lac promoter variants containing overlapping sites for CRP and IHF designed in silk. By assaying the synthetic promoters using a GFP reporter system, we demonstrated that these variants were functional and activated by CRP and IHF in vivo. Taken together, presented results add new information on the mechanisms of signal integration in bacterial promoters and provide new strategies for the engineering of synthetic regulatory circuits in bacteria. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 13/04125-2 - New genetic tools for Archaea: functional characterization and modeling of the non-coding RNA regulatory network of Halobacterium salinarum
Grantee:Rafael Silva Rocha
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral