title: Design, construction, and characterization of a set of biosensors for aromatic compounds.
abstract: Aromatic pollutants in the environments pose significant threat to human health due to their persistence and toxicity. Here, we report the design and comprehensive characterization of a set of aromatic biosensors constructed using green fluorescence protein as the reporter and aromatics-responsive transcriptional regulators, namely, NahR, XylS, HbpR, and DmpR, as the detectors. The genetic connections between the detectors and the reporter were carefully adjusted to achieve fold inductions far exceeding those reported in previous studies. For each biosensor, the functional characteristics including the dose-responses, dynamic range, and the detection spectrum of aromatic species were thoroughly measured. In particular, the interferences that nontypical inducers exert on each biosensor's response to its strongest inducer were evaluated. These well-characterized biosensors might serve as potent tools for environmental monitoring as well as quantitative gene regulation.
authors.affiliation: Peking University Team for the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM), ‡Center for Quantitative Biology, and §Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Haoran
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Hailing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Zhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Shuaixin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Shiyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuhang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Xingjie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Can
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Viets
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Yihao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shuobing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Haoqian M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ouyang
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic / Q000032:analysis*; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D058615:Synthetic Biology
chemical_list: D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins