Duke/Projects/efatf
From 2007.igem.org
Contents |
Electric field-activated transcription factor
Background and Motivation
Experience in previous iGEM contests has shown that genetic circuits can be fickle, noisy and inhomogeneous, in contrast to electric circuits which are easily controllable but lack the breadth and variety of biological components. In order to enhance the controlability of genetic circuits, we seek to gain global control of the lifeblood of genetic circuits, the transcription factors, with macroscopic inputs. The goal of this project is the creation of an electric-field activated transcription factor protein which will initialize transcription only in the presence of an applied, low-strength (10^3-10^5 V/m) alternating electric field. The design aims to accomplish this goal by modifying the ‘flexible arm’ of the λcI repressor such that an applied electric field will stabilize the altered protein in an otherwise unfavorable binding with its operator site. This can be accomplished by screening a library of 'flexible arm' mutants, the results of which can be further screened using directed evolution techniques to yield the protein which matches the above specifications. As most proteins are fairly resistant to conformational perturbations due to electric fields , this project focuses on isolating those amino acid sequences which are particularly susceptible to electric fields.
