Horizontal <i>Escherichia coli</i> (IMAGE)
Caption
Rice University scientists engineered a synthetic genetic clock inside a mutant Escherichia coli bacteria that keeps time despite rising or falling temperature. In an experiment, the researchers isolated a small number of engineered bacteria under a fluorescent microscope and captured images over three hours as a single cell (yellow arrow) oscillated at a regular clip between states despite changing conditions. They found altering one amino acid to make a regulator protein sensitive to temperature provided the right feedback to the bacteria's circadian clock.
Credit
Bennett Lab/Rice University
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