Integrase-mediated differentiation circuits improve evolutionary stability of burdensome and toxic functions in E. coli.

ABSTRACT: Advances in synthetic biology, bioengineering, and computation allow us to rapidly and reliably program cells with increasingly complex and useful functions. However, because the functions we engineer cells to perform are typically burdensome to cell growth, they can be rapidly lost due to the processes of mutation and natural selection. Here, we show that a strategy of terminal differentiation improves the evolutionary stability of burdensome functions in a general manner by realizing a reproductive and metabolic division of labor. To implement this strategy, we develop a genetic differentiation circuit in Escherichia coli using unidirectional integrase-recombination. With terminal differentiation, differentiated cells uniquely express burdensome functions driven by the orthogonal T7 RNA

SUBMITTER: Williams RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9649629 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature