Abstract
Microbes reside in complex microbiomes, where secreted specialized metabolites play a major role in interspecies communication. However, investigating the role of specialized metabolites in microbial signaling is currently limited to methods that are disruptive and affected by detection limits. The aim of our research is to engineer soil-dwelling microbes capable of recording the presence of bioavailable specialized metabolites in situ in soil and rhizosphere microbiomes. This approach provides an ultrasensitive, non-disruptive alternative to existing methods, which additionally allow for both spatial and temporal investigations of signals in situ. The sensors function by inferring an irreversible genetic switch in the presence of the metabolite in question, which is catalyzed by a tightly controlled integrase.
We have developed a handful of different sensors responding to pico-nanomolar concentrations of ecologically relevant metabolites. Each sensor has been tuned to avoid leaky expression in the absence of inducing metabolite in E. coli. Sensor sensitivity and responsiveness were analyzed with flow cytometry to generate response curves. Additionally, we have transferred our sensors to the soil- and rhizosphere compatible bacterium P. putida KT2440 and determined their effectiveness with flow cytometry. Finally, we have changed the output to genetic memory and verified the efficiency and orthogonality of the sensors with qPCR.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress 2023 : Abstract book |
Number of pages | 1 |
Publisher | Danish Microbiological Society |
Publication date | 2023 |
Pages | 71-71 |
Article number | 69 |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Event | The Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress 2023 - Copenhagen, Denmark Duration: 13 Nov 2023 → 13 Nov 2023 |
Conference
Conference | The Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress 2023 |
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Country/Territory | Denmark |
City | Copenhagen |
Period | 13/11/2023 → 13/11/2023 |