Tunable Expression Tools Enable Single-Cell Strain Distinction in the Gut Microbiome.

ABSTRACT: Applying synthetic biology to engineer gut-resident microbes provides new avenues to investigate microbe-host interactions, perform diagnostics, and deliver therapeutics. Here, we describe a platform for engineering Bacteroides, the most abundant genus in the Western microbiota, which includes a process for high-throughput strain modification. We have identified a novel phage promoter and translational tuning strategy and achieved an unprecedented level of expression that enables imaging of fluorescent-protein-expressing Bacteroides stably colonizing the mouse gut. A detailed characterization of the phage promoter has provided a set of constitutive promoters that span over four logs of strength without detectable fitness burden within the gut over 14 days. These promoters function predicta

SUBMITTER: Whitaker WR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5576361 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature