Towards light-mediated sensing of bacterial comfort.
Bacterial comfort is central to biotechnological applications. Here, we report the characterization of different sensoring systems, the first step within a broader synthetic biology-inspired light-mediated strategy to determine Escherichia coli perception of environmental factors critical to bacterial performance. We did so by directly 'asking' bacterial cultures with light-encoded questions corresponding to the excitation wavelength of fluorescent proteins placed under the control of environment-sensitive promoters. We built four genetic constructions with fluorescent proteins responding to glucose, temperature, oxygen and nitrogen; and a fifth construction allowing UV-induced expression of heterologous genes. Our engineered strains proved able to give feedback in response to key environmental factors and to express heterologous proteins upon light induction. This light-based dialoguing strategy reported here is the first effort towards developing a human-bacteria interphase with both fundamental and applied implications.


CONCLUSIONS
The results we present here are at the core of a larger synthetic biology research effort aiming at establishing a dialogue with bacteria. The framework is to convert the human voice into electric pulses, these into light pulses exciting bacterial fluorescent proteins, and convert light-emission back into electric pulses, which will be finally transformed into synthetic voice messages. We report here the first results of the project, in the form of light-based determination of key parameters for bacterial comfort. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to combine different engineered populations to have a combined feedback from the pool.
Universitat de València (Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology), Valencia, Spain.
G
G
Zafrilla
A
A
Iglesias
M
M
Marín
L
L
Torralba
P
P
Dorado-Morales
J L
JL
Racero
J J
JJ
Alcaina
L J
LJ
Morales
L
L
Martínez
M
M
Collantes
L
L
Gómez
C
C
Vilanova
M
M
Porcar
D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000528:radiation effects*; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D005947:Glucose / Q000502:physiology; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000502:physiology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D058615:Synthetic Biology; D015533:Transcriptional Activation / Q000528:radiation effects
D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D005947:Glucose; D009584:Nitrogen; D010100:Oxygen
fluorescent proteins; light-mediated communication; synthetic biology