title: Specific gene repression by CRISPRi system transferred through bacterial conjugation.
abstract: In microbial communities, bacterial populations are commonly controlled using indiscriminate, broad range antibiotics. There are few ways to target specific strains effectively without disrupting the entire microbiome and local environment. Here, we use conjugation, a natural DNA horizontal transfer process among bacterial species, to deliver an engineered CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) system for targeting specific genes in recipient Escherichia coli cells. We show that delivery of the CRISPRi system is successful and can specifically repress a reporter gene in recipient cells, thereby establishing a new tool for gene regulation across bacterial cells and potentially for bacterial population control.
authors.affiliation: Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, ‡Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, §Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, ∥Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, ⊥Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco , San Francisco, California 94158, United States.
authors.forename: Weiyue
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Derrick
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dadlani
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dinh
authors.forename: Verna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Kendall
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kearns
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haliburton
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heimberg
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heineike
authors.forename: Anusuya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramasubramanian
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Kara J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Helmke
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zepeda
authors.forename: Lei S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Wendell A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems / Q000235:genetics*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D034622:RNA Interference; D058615:Synthetic Biology
keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; conjugation; horizontal gene transfer; synthetic biology; synthetic gene regulation