Department of Chemistry and Center for Fundamental and Applied Molecular Evolution, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Nat Chem Biol. 2010 Jun;6(6):464-70. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.369. Epub 2010 May 9.
A major goal of synthetic biology is to reprogram cells to perform complex tasks. Here we show how a combination of in vitro and in vivo selection rapidly identifies a synthetic riboswitch that activates protein translation in response to the herbicide atrazine. We further demonstrate that this riboswitch can reprogram bacteria to migrate in the presence of atrazine. Finally, we show that incorporating a gene from an atrazine catabolic pathway allows these cells to seek and destroy atrazine.
合成生物学的一个主要目标是重新编程细胞以执行复杂任务。在这里，我们展示了体外和体内选择的组合如何快速鉴定出一种合成核糖开关，该核糖开关可以响应莠去津激活蛋白质翻译。我们进一步证明，这种核糖开关可以重新编程细菌，使其在莠去津存在的情况下迁移。最后，我们表明，将莠去津代谢途径中的一个基因整合到这些细胞中可以使它们寻找并破坏莠去津。
