FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL... |
| Like the layers of a Russian doll, using multi-level regulation in an engineered cell ensures gene expression only switches on precisely when needed. Credit: Thomas Gorochowski |
In a recent study led by the University of Bristol, scientists have shown how to simultaneously harness multiple forms of regulation in living cells to strictly control gene expression and open new avenues for improved biotechnologies.
Engineered microbes are increasingly being used to enable the sustainable and clean production of chemicals, medicines and much more. To make this possible, bioengineers must control when specific sets of genes are turned on and off to allow for careful regulation of the biochemical processes involved.
Their findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications.
Veronica Greco, lead author and a Royal Society funded PhD student at Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Although turning on or off a gene sounds simple, getting a living cell to do it on command is a real challenge. Every cell is slightly different, and the processes involved are not 100 percent reliable.”
To solve this issue, the team took inspiration from nature where key events are often controlled by multiple processes simultaneously.
Veronica Greco added: “If you look at a Venus flytrap you find that a trap will only close when multiple hairs are triggered together. This helps reduce the chance of a trap closing by accident. We wanted to do something similar when controlling the expression of a gene inside a cell, adding multiple-levels of regulation to ensure it only comes on precisely when we want it to.”
Professor Claire Grierson, co-author and Head of the School of Biological Sciences at Bristol, added: “What was wonderful about this project was how well it worked to harness two of the core processes present in every cell and underpinning all of life – transcription and translation.”
The team showed that by using this type of multi-level regulation, they could create some of the most high-performance switches for gene expression built to date. READ MORE
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