title: Transcriptional Interference in Convergent Promoters as a Means for Tunable Gene Expression.
abstract: An important goal of synthetic biology involves the extension and standardization of novel biological elements for applications in medicine and biotechnology. Transcriptional interference, occurring in sets of convergent promoters, offers a promising mechanism for building elements for the design of tunable gene regulation. Here, we investigate the transcriptional interference mechanisms of antisense roadblock and RNA polymerase traffic in a set of convergent promoters as novel modules for synthetic biology. We show examples of elements, including antisense roadblock, relative promoter strengths, interpromoter distance, and sequence content that can be tuned to give rise to repressive as well as cooperative behaviors, therefore resulting in distinct gene expression patterns. Our approach will be useful toward engineering new biological devices and will bring new insights to naturally occurring cis-antisense systems. Therefore, we are reporting a new biological tool that can be used for synthetic biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, ‡BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder , 3415 Colorado Avenue, UCB 596, Boulder, Colorado 80303, United States.
authors.forename: Antoni E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Bordoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, ‡BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder , 3415 Colorado Avenue, UCB 596, Boulder, Colorado 80303, United States.
authors.forename: Usha S
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Varanasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, ‡BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder , 3415 Colorado Avenue, UCB 596, Boulder, Colorado 80303, United States.
authors.forename: Colleen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Courtney
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, ‡BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder , 3415 Colorado Avenue, UCB 596, Boulder, Colorado 80303, United States.
authors.forename: Anushree
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D016372:RNA, Antisense; C087024:SrnB protein, E coli; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases
keywords: RNA polymerase collision; antisense roadblock; antisense transcription; gene regulation; genetic switches; transcriptional interference