Tools for engineering coordinated system behaviour in synthetic microbial consortia
File(s)231597.full.pdf (1.61 MB)
Working paper
Author(s)
Kylilis, Nicolas
Stan, Guy-Bart
Polizzi, Karen
Type
Working Paper
Abstract
Advancing synthetic biology to the multicellular level requires the development of multiple orthogonal cell-to-cell communication channels to propagate information with minimal signal interference. The development of quorum sensing devices, the cornerstone technology for building microbial communities with coordinated system behaviour, has largely focused on reducing signal leakage between systems of cognate AHL/transcription factor pairs. However, the use of non-cognate signals as a design feature has received limited attention so far. Here, we demonstrate the largest library of AHL-receiver devices constructed to date with all cognate and non-cognate chemical signal interactions quantified and we develop a software tool that allows automated selection of orthogonal chemical channels. We use this approach to identify up to four orthogonal channels in silico and experimentally demonstrate the simultaneous use of three channels in co-culture. The development of multiple non-interfering cell-to-cell communication channels will facilitate the design of synthetic microbial consortia for novel applications including distributed bio-computation, increased bioprocess efficiency, cell specialisation, and spatial organisation.
Date Issued
2017-12-11
Citation
2017
Publisher
bioRxiv
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s). The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Identifier
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/11/231597
Subjects
MD Multidisciplinary
Publication Status
Published