Engineering a Circular Riboregulator in Escherichia coli
Open Access
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in BioDesign Research
Abstract
RNAs of different shapes and sizes, natural or synthetic, can regulate gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Circular RNAs have recently appeared to be more widespread than previously thought, but their role in prokaryotes remains elusive. Here, by inserting a riboregulatory sequence within a group I permuted intron-exon ribozyme, we created a small noncoding RNA that self-splices to produce a circular riboregulator in Escherichia coli. We showed that the resulting riboregulator can trans-activate gene expression by interacting with a cis-repressed messenger RNA. We characterized the system with a fluorescent reporter and with an antibiotic resistance marker, and we modeled this novel posttranscriptional mechanism. This first reported example of a circular RNA regulating gene expression in E. coli adds to an increasing repertoire of RNA synthetic biology parts, and it highlights that topological molecules can play a role in the case of prokaryotic regulation.Keywords
Funding Information
- AXA Research Fund
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (BFU2015-66894-P)
- School of Life Sciences
- WISB center (EPSRC-BBSRC BB/M017982/1)
- EVO-ENGINE (BBSRC BB/P020615/1)
- PROMYS (613745)
- EVOPROG (FP7-ICT-FET 610730)
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