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Engineering Escherichia coli to Sense Non-native Environmental Stimuli: Synthetic Chimera Two-component Systems

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Abstract

The Two-component Regulatory System (TCS) is the primary mode that bacteria use to continuously sense the environment. A TCS is comprised of a periplasmic sensor Histidine kinase (HK) domain and a cytoplasmic Response regulator (RR) domain. The HK domain phosphorylates the RR domain to activate the effector gene expression. Utilizing a rational approach, the sensor HK was genetically engineered in Escherichia coli to create chimeric HK, by a rewiring or domain swapping strategy. Apart from the wild-type characteristics, chimeric HK imparts novel or the desired characteristics and ability to genetically engineered E. coli for its adaptation and survival. This review focuses on the design, potential applications, and future perspectives of chimeric HKs used as high throughput screening biosensors of various compounds.

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Author notes

  1. Irisappan Ganesh

    Present address: Current address: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea

  2. The authors equally contributed to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, Korea

    Irisappan Ganesh & Soon Ho Hong

  2. Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, 34141, Korea

    Irisappan Ganesh

  3. Department of Biotechnology & Bioengineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 61186, Korea

    Tae Wan Kim

  4. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Sogang University, Seoul, 04107, Korea

    Jeong-Geol Na

  5. Research Center for Bio-based Chemistry, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Ulsan, 44429, Korea

    Gyeong Tae Eom

  6. Department of Green Chemistry and Environmental Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, 34144, Korea

    Gyeong Tae Eom

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  1. Irisappan Ganesh
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  2. Tae Wan Kim
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  3. Jeong-Geol Na
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  4. Gyeong Tae Eom
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Correspondence to Soon Ho Hong.

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Ganesh, I., Kim, T.W., Na, JG. et al. Engineering Escherichia coli to Sense Non-native Environmental Stimuli: Synthetic Chimera Two-component Systems. Biotechnol Bioproc E 24, 12–22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-018-0252-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-018-0252-2

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