A discovery platform for identification of host-induced bacterial biosensors from diverse sources
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Published version (ahead of print)
Author(s)
Robinson, Clare
Carreño, David
Weber, Tim
Chen, Yangyumeng
Riglar, David
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Synthetic biology approaches such as whole-cell biosensing and ‘sense-and-respond’ therapeutics aim to enlist the vast sensing repertoire of gut microbes to drive cutting-edge clinical and research applications. However, well-characterised circuit components that sense health- and disease-relevant conditions within the gut remain limited. Here, we extend the flexibility and power of a biosensor screening platform using bacterial memory circuits. We construct libraries of sensory components sourced from diverse gut bacteria using a bespoke two-component system identification and cloning pipeline. Tagging unique strains using a hypervariable DNA barcode enables parallel tracking of thousands of unique clones, corresponding to ~150 putative biosensors, in a single experiment. Evaluating sensor activity and performance heterogeneity across various in vitro and in vivo conditions using mouse models, we identify several biosensors of interest. Validated hits include biosensors with relevance for autonomous control of synthetic functions within the mammalian gut and for non-invasive monitoring of inflammatory disease using faecal sampling. This approach will promote rapid biosensor engineering to advance the development of synthetic biology tools for deployment within complex environments.
Date Issued
2025-06-09
Date Acceptance
2024-05-16
Citation
Molecular Systems Biology, 2025
ISSN
1744-4292
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Molecular Systems Biology
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ applies to the data associated with this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data, but does not extend to the graphical or creative elements of illustrations, charts, or figures. This waiver removes legal barriers to the re-use and mining of research data. According to standard scholarly practice, it is recommended to provide appropriate citation and attribution whenever technically possible.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s44320-025-00123-3
Subjects
Bacterial Biosensor
Gut Microbiome
Synthetic Biology
Inflammation Subject Categories Biotechnology & Synthetic Biology
Microbiology, Virology & Host Pathogen Interaction
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2025-06-09