Emergent genetic oscillations in a synthetic microbial consortium

• Autores: Ye Chen, Jae Kyoung Kim, Andrew J. Hirning
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 349, Nº 6251, 2015, págs. 986-989
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A challenge of synthetic biology is the creation of cooperative microbial systems that exhibit population-level behaviors. Such systems use cellular signaling mechanisms to regulate gene expression across multiple cell types. We describe the construction of a synthetic microbial consortium consisting of two distinct cell types—an “activator” strain and a “repressor” strain. These strains produced two orthogonal cell-signaling molecules that regulate gene expression within a synthetic circuit spanning both strains. The two strains generated emergent, population-level oscillations only when cultured together. Certain network topologies of the two-strain circuit were better at maintaining robust oscillations than others. The ability to program population-level dynamics through the genetic engineering of multiple cooperative strains points the way toward engineering complex synthetic tissues and organs with multiple cell types.