Reduced evolvability of Escherichia coli MDS42, an IS-less cellular chassis for molecular and synthetic biology applications.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evolvability is an intrinsic feature of all living cells. However, newly emerging, evolved features can be undesirable when genetic circuits, designed and fabricated by rational, synthetic biological approaches, are installed in the cell. Streamlined-genome E. coli MDS42 is free of mutation-generating IS elements, and can serve as a host with reduced evolutionary potential.

Results

We analyze an extreme case of toxic plasmid clone instability, and show that random host IS element hopping, causing inactivation of the toxic cloned sequences, followed by automatic selection of the fast-growing mutants, can prevent the maintenance of a clone developed for vaccine production. Analyzing the molecular details, we identify a hydrophobic protein as the toxic byproduct of t

SUBMITTER: Umenhoffer K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2891674 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature