원문정보
초록
영어
Precise and temporal control of the expression of bacterial genes in response to an external stimulus is an essential tool for understanding and manipulating complex biological systems. Efficient control of biological systems would, in turn, help achieve maximal production of the desired products. Light-inducible gene expression systems are indispensable tools in systems biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology, as they provide an easily switchable control over gene expression. They have several advantages over previously developed physically or chemically inducible gene expression systems in that they can help avoid toxic, unintended, or pleiotropic effects on bacterial physiology. However, previous light-inducible gene expression system in Escherichia coli could only repress target gene expression in the presence of light. Here, we have developed a light-switchable gene expression system in E. coli that could favor both inducible and oscillatory control of gene expression in the presence of light. Theλ cI repressor gene was expressed under the control of a previously constructed light-repressible ompC promoter. The green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene fused to a λ repressor-repressible promoter was used as a reporter. This light-switchable system allows rapid turn-on or turn-off of the target gene expression, at any desired time. It could also favor efficient reversible induction and repression of gene expression (switchable gene expression). This system would be a good tool for flexible control and fine-tuning of gene expression. It could be also used to study gene function, optimize metabolic pathways, and control biological systems both spatially and temporally.