title: Sensing new chemicals with bacterial transcription factors.
abstract: Bacteria rely on allosteric transcription factors (aTFs) to sense a wide range of chemicals. The variety of effectors has contributed in making aTFs the most used input system in synthetic biological circuits. Considering their enabling role in biotechnology, an important question concerns the size of the chemical space that can potentially be detected by these biosensors. From digging into the ever changing repertoire of natural regulatory circuits, to advances in aTF engineering, we review here different strategies that are pushing the boundaries of this chemical space. We also review natural and synthetic cases of indirect sensing, where aTFs work in combination with metabolism to enable detection of new molecules.
authors.affiliation: iSSB, Genopole, CNRS, UEVE, Université Paris Saclay, 91000 Évry, France; Micalis Institute, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris Saclay, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Libis
authors.affiliation: iSSB, Genopole, CNRS, UEVE, Université Paris Saclay, 91000 Évry, France; Micalis Institute, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris Saclay, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Baudoin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Delépine
authors.affiliation: iSSB, Genopole, CNRS, UEVE, Université Paris Saclay, 91000 Évry, France; Micalis Institute, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris Saclay, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France; SYNBIOCHEM Centre, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Electronic address: jlfaulon@jouy.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-Loup
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Faulon
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors