Template:CLSB-UK 17 TS

Toehold switches are synthetic riboregulators that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Gene expression can be activated in the presence of a cognate single stranded RNA molecule that contains an arbitrary sequence (the trigger RNA). The trigger RNA binds to the switch through base pairing, causing a conformational change that results in translation of the downstream protein coding region.

This part codes for a toehold switch that contains a region that is complementary to the micro-RNA {{{microRNA}}} (the trigger RNA). The toehold switch is activated by {{{microRNA}}} and regulates production of {{{reporter}}}. The {{{outputtype}}} intensity from {{{reporter}}} is proportional to the number of toehold switches activated (as the more switches activated, the greater the amount of {{{reporter}}} is produced), thus indicating the levels of {{{microRNA}}} present (as the more micro-RNA there is, the greater the number of switches activated). This part can therefore be used to quantify the levels of {{{microRNA}}}.

The transcripts produced by this part are toxic to E. coli. We recommend the use of an inducible non-leaky promoter to allow for amplification in E. coli. For reference, we found Bba_K808000 was too leaky.

This part contains a strong RBS sequence.