Plant Sentinels to Explosives
Abstract
Plants can be genetically engineered to act as sensors of external substances; here we made the components for plants to sense two organophosphate pesticides, malathion and diazinon. A computationally designed protein is first designed to bind the substance of interest. De novo protein scaffolds for computational protein design are an effective starting point that can improve the binding efficiency over modifying existing proteins. Currently, extensive testing and modification are required to produce binders with nanoscale affinity for a ligand. When assembling the complete genetic circuit for the plant sensor, addition of a genetic positive feedback module can provide critical amplification as well as memory of a brief exposure to the substance. Modeling of positive feedback circuits informs their rational design, and the dynamic range of each circuit modules output is engineered to align with the input for the readout module. Finally, we designed novel genetic components, synthetic 5UTRs, that can tune the function of our sensor genetic circuit at the translational phase, providing additional regulation and control over the circuits output.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 29, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1070175
Entities
People
- David Baker
- June I. Medford
Organizations
- Colorado State University