This article is part of the supplement: Ninth International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB2010): Computational Biology
Proceedings
Construction of a genetic AND gate under a new standard for assembly of genetic parts
Author affiliations
1 Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan
2 Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 223-8522, Japan
3 Department of Bioengineering and Robotics, Tohoku University, 6-6-01 Aoba-yama, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
4 Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
5 PRESTO, JST, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
6 Present address: Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Citation and License
BMC Genomics 2010, 11(Suppl 4):S16 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-11-S4-S16
Published: 2 December 2010Abstract
Background
Appropriate regulation of respective gene expressions is a bottleneck for the realization of artificial biological systems inside living cells. The modification of several promoter sequences is required to achieve appropriate regulation of the systems. However, a time-consuming process is required for the insertion of an operator, a binding site of a protein for gene expression, to the gene regulatory region of a plasmid. Thus, a standardized method for integrating operator sequences to the regulatory region of a plasmid is required.
Results
We developed a standardized method for integrating operator sequences to the regulatory region of a plasmid and constructed a synthetic promoter that functions as a genetic AND gate. By standardizing the regulatory region of a plasmid and the operator parts, we established a platform for modular assembly of the operator parts. Moreover, by assembling two different operator parts on the regulatory region, we constructed a regulatory device with an AND gate function.
Conclusions
We implemented a new standard to assemble operator parts for construction of functional genetic logic gates. The logic gates at the molecular scale have important implications for reprogramming cellular behavior.
