Team:EPF-Lausanne

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Revision as of 20:35, 21 October 2009

Concept

LovTAP dimer bound to DNA

Recent discoveries of photoreceptors in many organisms got us excited about the possibility of using light-responsive genetic tools in synthetic biology. Indeed, such tools could in principle induce phenotypic changes in a more localized, preciser and faster fashion than currently available chemical-based methods. As a proof-of-concept, the goal of our project therefore is to induce a change in gene expression, more specifically to directly turn a gene on or off, in a living organism, in response to a light stimulus.

For this purpose, we used a light-sensitive DNA binding protein "LOVTAP" (for Light, Oxygen, Voltage Tryptophan-Activated Protein) to convert a light input into a chosen output, here fluorescence generated by the RFP reporter gene.

We demonstrate that this light-induced gene switch tool works in vivo and thus demonstrate the feasibility of implementing such powerful technology in biological systems of interest.

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 [[Image:LovTAP_dimer.png|right|300px|thumb| LovTAP dimer bound to DNA]]
-Recent discoveries of photoreceptors in many organisms got us excited about the possibility of using light-responsive genetic tools in synthetic biology. The goal of our project is to induce a change in gene expression, more specifically to directly turn a gene on or off, in a living organism, in response to a light stimulus.
+Recent discoveries of photoreceptors in many organisms got us excited about the possibility of using light-responsive genetic tools in synthetic biology. Indeed, such tools could in principle induce phenotypic changes in a more localized, preciser and faster fashion than currently available chemical-based methods. As a proof-of-concept, the goal of our project therefore is to induce a change in gene expression, more specifically to directly turn a gene on or off, in a living organism, in response to a light stimulus.
-For this purpose, we used light-sensitive DNA binding proteins (or light-sensitive proteins that activate DNA binding proteins) to convert a light input into a chosen output, for example fluorescence, through a reporter gene such as RFP.
+For this purpose, we used a light-sensitive DNA binding protein "LOVTAP" (for Light, Oxygen, Voltage Tryptophan-Activated Protein) to convert a light input into a chosen output, here fluorescence generated by the RFP reporter gene.
-Demonstrating that the light-induced gene switch tool works in vivo would show that easier and faster tools can potentially be made available in several fields of biology. Such tools could induce phenotypic changes more localized, more precise (time resolution and reversibility) and drastically faster than currently used chemically based methods.
+We demonstrate that this light-induced gene switch tool works in vivo and thus demonstrate the feasibility of implementing such powerful technology in biological systems of interest.
-LOV stands for light, oxygen, and voltage, whereas TAP means tryptophan-activated protein.
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