![]() The engineering must be evolutionarily stable, so that natural selection does not favor loss of the novel functions. Yet, the successful engineering of a genome that performs our desired function is not sufficient to confer transgenic immortality. For many applications, it would be ideal if the engineered microbial population persisted and purveyed its beneficial role indefinitely, generation after generation. If biofilms do not facilitate spatially structured phage growth, the transgenic enzymes may be rapidly eliminated from the phage population after release in the environment, even if the transgene benefits overall phage growth on the biofilm.Īmong many exciting prospects for synthetic biology, one is to engineer microbes that degrade environmental compounds – pollutants, bacterial biofilms, or foodstuff for fuel. These results challenge efforts to engineer phages with exoenzymes that degrade biofilm polymers. The genome carrying the endosialidase gene was favored on a capsulated host if grown in physical isolation of control genomes (lacking the gene) but was selected against otherwise. This evolutionary perspective was supported in short term experiments. There is thus the possibility that the gene will be subject to a tragedy of the commons and be selected against, if the enzyme benefits other genomes. However, the transgenic protein (an endosialidase) is expressed as an exoenzyme, released from the cell at lysis but unattached to the phage particle. ![]() In prior work, adding a gene to phage T7 that degraded the host K1 capsule facilitated growth when plated on capsulated hosts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |