Engineering a new light-induced regulator for biology
Revolutionising a standard method in biotechnology, researchers from the Control Theory and Systems Biology Lab led by Mustafa Khammash in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Fribourg in Germany, developed a novel optogenetic regulator in the bacterium Escherichia coli which controls cellular function by replacing chemical induction with light activation.
The engineered system is called BLADE - blue light-inducible AraC dimers in Escherichia coli, referring to one of the most often used gene expression systems in microbiology. AraC, a protein and component of the L-arabinose operon in the genome of the bacterium, turns into a regulator for gene expression once bound to arabinose. This AraC protein was now engineered to make it responsive to light instead of arabinose allowing researchers to selectively induce the production of proteins and study signalling processes in bacteria by way of a simple light ON – light OFF switch.
The great advantage of the new tool is its speed, reversibility and targeted manner in time and space. Published in Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers conclude: “Our work establishes BLADE as a highly practical and effective optogenetic tool with plug-and-play functionality - features that we hope will accelerate the broader adoption of optogenetics and the realisation of its vast potential in microbiology, synthetic biology and biotechnology.”
Find the external page original study in Nature Chemical Biology.
Find a external page media release issued by the University of Fribourg, Breisgau (D).
Learn about the Control Theory and Systems Biology lab led by Mustafa Khammash.