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- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Recombinases are powerful tools for genome engineering and synthetic biology, however recombinases are limited by a lack of user-programmability and often require complex directed-evolution experiments to retarget specificity. Conversely, CRISPR systems have extreme versatility yet can induce off-target mutations and karyotypic destabilization. To address these constraints we developed an RNA-guided recombinase protein by fusing a hyperactive mutant resolvase from transposon TN3 to catalytically inactive Cas9. We validated recombinase-Cas9 (rCas9) function in model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a chromosomally integrated fluorescent reporter. Moreover, we demonstrated cooperative targeting by CRISPR RNAs at spacings of 22 or 40bps is necessary for directing recombination. Using PCR and Sanger sequencing, we confirmed rCas9 targets DNA recombination. With further development we envision rCas9 becoming useful in the development of RNA-programmed genetic circuitry as well as high-specificity genome engineering.
ContributorsStandage-Beier, Kylie S (Author) / Wang, Xiao (Thesis advisor) / Brafman, David A (Committee member) / Tian, Xiao-jun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Synthetic biology is a novel method that reengineers functional parts of natural genes of interest to build new biomolecular devices able to express as designed. There is increasing interest in synthetic biology due to wide potential applications in various fields such as clinics and fuel production. However, there are still many challenges in synthetic biology. For example, many natural biological processes are poorly understood, and these could be more thoroughly studied through model synthetic gene networks. Additionally, since synthetic biology applications may have numerous design constraints, more inducer systems should be developed to satisfy different requirements for genetic design.
This thesis covers two topics. First, I attempt to generate stochastic resonance (SR) in a biological system. Synthetic bistable systems were chosen because the inducer range in which they exhibit bistability can satisfy one of the three requirements of SR: a weak periodic force is unable to make the transition between states happen. I synthesized several different bistable systems, including toggle switches and self-activators, to select systems matching another requirement: the system has a clear threshold between the two energy states. Their bistability was verified and characterized. At the same time, I attempted to figure out the third requirement for SR – an effective noise serving as the stochastic force – through one of the most widespread toggles, the mutual inhibition toggle, in both yeast and E. coli. A mathematic model for SR was written and adjusted.
Secondly, I began work on designing a new genetic system capable of responding to pulsed magnetic fields. The operators responding to pulsed magnetic stimuli in the rpoH promoter were extracted and reorganized. Different versions of the rpoH promoter were generated and tested, and their varying responsiveness to magnetic fields was recorded. In order to improve efficiency and produce better operators, a directed evolution method was applied with the help of a CRISPR-dCas9 nicking system. The best performing promoters thus far show a five-fold difference in gene expression between trials with and without the magnetic field.
This thesis covers two topics. First, I attempt to generate stochastic resonance (SR) in a biological system. Synthetic bistable systems were chosen because the inducer range in which they exhibit bistability can satisfy one of the three requirements of SR: a weak periodic force is unable to make the transition between states happen. I synthesized several different bistable systems, including toggle switches and self-activators, to select systems matching another requirement: the system has a clear threshold between the two energy states. Their bistability was verified and characterized. At the same time, I attempted to figure out the third requirement for SR – an effective noise serving as the stochastic force – through one of the most widespread toggles, the mutual inhibition toggle, in both yeast and E. coli. A mathematic model for SR was written and adjusted.
Secondly, I began work on designing a new genetic system capable of responding to pulsed magnetic fields. The operators responding to pulsed magnetic stimuli in the rpoH promoter were extracted and reorganized. Different versions of the rpoH promoter were generated and tested, and their varying responsiveness to magnetic fields was recorded. In order to improve efficiency and produce better operators, a directed evolution method was applied with the help of a CRISPR-dCas9 nicking system. The best performing promoters thus far show a five-fold difference in gene expression between trials with and without the magnetic field.
ContributorsHu, Hao (Author) / Wang, Xiao (Thesis advisor) / Stabenfeldt, Sarah (Committee member) / Brafman, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Fusion proteins that specifically interact with biochemical marks on chromosomes represent a new class of synthetic transcriptional regulators that decode cell state information rather than deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) sequences. In multicellular organisms, information relevant to cell state, tissue identity, and oncogenesis is often encoded as biochemical modifications of histones, which are bound to DNA in eukaryotic nuclei and regulate gene expression states. In 2011, Haynes et al. showed that a synthetic regulator called the Polycomb chromatin Transcription Factor (PcTF), a fusion protein that binds methylated histones, reactivated an artificially-silenced luciferase reporter gene. These synthetic transcription activators are derived from the polycomb repressive complex (PRC) and associate with the epigenetic silencing mark H3K27me3 to reactivate the expression of silenced genes. It is demonstrated here that the duration of epigenetic silencing does not perturb reactivation via PcTF fusion proteins. After 96 hours PcTF shows the strongest reactivation activity. A variant called Pc2TF, which has roughly double the affinity for H3K27me3 in vitro, reactivated the silenced luciferase gene by at least 2-fold in living cells.
ContributorsVargas, Daniel A. (Author) / Haynes, Karmella (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Xiao (Committee member) / Mills, Jeremy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Metabolic engineering of bacteria has become a viable technique as a sustainable and efficient method for the production of biochemicals. Two main goals were explored: investigating styrene tolerance genes in E. coli and engineering cyanobacteria for the high yield production of L-serine. In the first study, genes that were shown to be highly differentially expressed in E. coli upon styrene exposure were further investigated by testing the effects of their deletion and overexpression on styrene tolerance and growth. It was found that plsX, a gene responsible for the phospholipid formation in membranes, had the most promising results when overexpressed at 10 µM IPTG, with a relative OD600 of 706 ± 117% at 175 mg/L styrene when compared to the control plasmid at the same concentration. This gene is likely to be effective target when engineering styrene- and other aromatic-producing strains, increasing titers by reducing their cytotoxicity.In the second study, the goal is to engineer the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 for the overproduction of L-serine. As a robust, photosynthetic bacteria, it has potential for being used in such-rich states to capture CO2 and produce industrially relevant products. In order to increase L-serine titers, a key degradation gene, ilvA, must be removed. While ilvA is responsible for degrading L-serine into pyruvate, it is also responsible for initiating the only known pathway for the production of isoleucine. Herein, we constructed a plasmid containing the native A0730 gene in order to investigate its potential to restore isoleucine production. If functional, a Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 ΔilvA strain can then be engineered with minimal effects on growth and an expected increase in L-serine accumulation.
ContributorsAbed, Omar (Author) / Nielsen, David R (Thesis advisor) / Varman, Arul M (Committee member) / Wang, Xuan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The purpose behind this research was to identify unknown transport proteins involved in lactate export. Lactate bioproduction is an environmentally beneficial alternative to petroleum-based plastic production as it produces less toxic waste byproduct and can rely on microbial degradation of otherwise wasted biomass. Coupled with appropriate product refinement, industrial microbial producers can be genetically engineered to generate quantities of bioplastic approaching 400 million metric tons each year. However, this process is not entirely suitable for large investment, as the fermentative bottlenecks, including product export and homeostasis control, limit production metrics. Previous studies have based their efforts on enhancing cellular machinery, but there remain uncharacterized membrane proteins involved in product export yet to be determined. It has been seen that deletion of known lactate transporters in Escherichia coli resulted in a decrease in lactate production, unlike the expected inhibition of export. This indicates that there exist membrane proteins with the ability to export lactate which may have another similar substrate it primarily transports.To identify these proteins, I constructed a genomic library of all genes in an engineered lactate producing E. coli strain, with known transporter genes deleted, and systematically screened for potential lactate transporter proteins. Plasmids and their isolated proteins were compared utilizing anaerobic plating to identify genes through sanger sequencing. With this method, I identified two proteins, yiaN and ybhL-ybhM, which did not show any significant improvement in lactate production when tested. Attempts were made to improve library diversity, resulting in isopropyl-β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside induction as a likely factor for increased expression of potential fermentation-associated proteins. A genomic library from Lactobacillus plantarum was constructed and screened for transport proteins which could improve lactate production. Results showed that isolated plasmids contained no notable inserts, indicating that the initial transformation limited diversity. Lastly, I compared the results from genomic screening with overexpression of target transporter genes by computational substrate similarity search. Induced expression of ttdT, citT and dcuA together significantly increased lactate export and thus production metrics as well as cell growth. These positive results indicate an effective means of determining substrate promiscuity in membrane proteins with similar organic acid transport capacity.
ContributorsLee-Kin, Jared (Author) / Wang, Xuan (Thesis advisor) / Nielsen, David (Committee member) / Varman, Arul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022