Weaker transcription factors work better cooperatively (IMAGE)
Caption
Bioengineers can control cell behavior with artificial gene circuits, but it has proven difficult to design specialized proteins called transcription factors (TF) that can activate synthetic genes without occasionally activating some naturally occurring genes. Rice University bioengineer Caleb Bashor co-led the development of a generalizable method engineers can use to avoid “off-target” gene activation by creating transcription factors that bind weakly with DNA when they are alone and strongly (top right) when they cooperatively assemble (center) with other transcription factors. In experiments, the researchers showed cooperative assembly could improve the long-term stability of synthetic gene circuits (bottom right) by eliminating ill effects of off-target binding (bottom left).
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Illustration courtesy of Caleb Bashor/Rice University
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