Part:BBa_K2904000

Tuner A

Design

Background of 2019 OUC-China's project——RiboLego

Due to context-dependent performance and limited dynamic range, the widespread application of riboswitches is currently restricted. By replacing its original ORF with a new one, the structure of an aptamer domain can be subtly disrupted, resulting in a loss of ligand response. So riboswitch is still not be considered as a ‘plug and play' device. To tackle these problems, our project focuses on a standardized design principle to be used for modular and tunable riboswitch. The modular riboswitch we defined consists of the original riboswitch, Stabilizer and Tuner. Stabilizer can protect the structure of riboswitch from damage while Tuner can reduce the expression probability of fusion protein and make improvement of riboswitch function.

The construction of this part

We defined a Tuner element to include a repressing region, a RBS region and a coupled junction region. The repressing region is the reverse complement of a subsequence of the RBS region so that Tuner can form a hairpin with appropriate ∆G. The stop and start codon fused in the junction region. Ribosomes recruited by the upstream riboswitch can open up the hairpin of Tuner before dissociation at the stop codon in the junction region. Additional ribosomes can then assemble at the Tuner RBS and initiate translation at the first start codon of the introduced gene of interest. Therefore, Tuner can facilitate tuning of a riboswitch’s response and help GOI express normally. The following diagram shows the structure of Tuner A and we marked each region clearly.

Figure1: The structure of Tuner A.

Result

Overview

Using this part, we could engineer many modular riboswitches. In order to validate the effect of Tuner A, we utilized four kinds of riboswitches, including Adda riboswitch, Btub riboswitch, cobalamin riboswitch and FourU. The results demonstrate that Tuner A can help achieve tunable and efficient gene regulation. Besides, we also used Tuner A to explore the source and length of Stabilizer. [http://2019.igem.org/Team:OUC-China/Results More results are on this page!]

Modular Adda riboswitch

First, we employed Adda riboswitch, which can regulate the expression of adenosine deaminase by binding 2-aminopurine in Vibrio vulnificus.The first 150bp of adenosine deaminase was chosen as Stabilizer of Adda riboswitch because our docking matrix suggested that a normal riboswitch structure would be observed when using this length of Stabilizer. We used Tuner A to construct modular Adda riboswitch and sfGFPas the reporter gene to reflect output of our system.

For the sake of functional test, other 2 circuits are set, Adda-sfGFP and Adda-Stabilizer-sfGFP, which also were under control of the tetracycline promoter. By Confocal Microscopy Leica TCS SP8, it’s obvious that no fluorescence could be observed when the adenine riboswitch had sfGFP introduced directly. The direct fusion of sfGFP to Stabilizer yielded very clear inclusion bodies, manifested as distinct spots present at one pole of the cell which are formed by misfolded insoluble proteins. By comparison, the modular Adda riboswitch yielded soluble working protein since Tuner A has the ability to insulation the target gene from Stabilizer.

The qualitative experiment is not enough to analyze the modular Adda riboswitch containing Tuner A. So we tested our system by microplate reader, which is used to reflect the intensity of sfGFP changing over time. The following chart shows the dynamic curve measured every two hours. It can prove that Tuner A can enhance the function of riboswitch and help riboswitch control the downstream gene expression during the whole cultivation period.

Fig.1 The results of modular Adda riboswitch containing Tuner A by microplate reader.

Modular Btub riboswitch

By employing the Adda riboswitch, we found it’s possible to use our design principle to optimize the function of riboswitch. So we chose the Btub riboswitch, a repressing riboswitch which responds to adenosylcobalamin to verify the universal applicability of our guideline. After running our program, the first 150bp of BtuB, the original target gene of the Btub riboswitch was used to serve as Stabilizer. We introduced Tuner A to construct modular Btub riboswitch and sfGFP was reporter gene as the output of this system.

Then we proved the function of modular Btub riboswitch with the qualitative experiment. The fluorescence images can provide us with some useful information. It can result in a loss of ligand response when sfGFP was introduced directly after Btub riboswitch. Compared with the induced Btub fusion, the induced modular Btub riboswitch can show a greater induction difference, which demonstrates that Tuner has the ability to improve the function of riboswitch.

By microplate reader, we measured the intensity of sfGFP changing over time in our system. The following chart shows the dynamic curve measured every two hours. As we can see, the modular Btub riboswitch has a beautiful response curve.

Fig.1 The results of modular Btub riboswitch containing Tuner A by microplate reader.

Modular FourU riboswitch

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]