Team:Cambridge/Experiments/Low Level Expression

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(Low Level Expression)
(pBAD promoter)
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Where does the pBAD promoter comes from?
Where does the pBAD promoter comes from?
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Unfortunately, the araC±P BAD system and the associated high-capacity, low-affinity l-arabinose transporter AraE display autocatalytic behaviour and suffer from all-or-none expression in E. coli (Siegele & Hu, 1997). Rather
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The arabinose system enables  E. coli and its relatives to take up the pentose  L-arabinose from the growth medium using products of the unlinked araE and araFGH genes, and then convert intracellular arabinose in three steps catalyzed by the products of the  araBAD genes to D-xylulose-5-phosphate (Fig. 1). This then enters the pentose phosphate shunt. AraC protein regulates expression of its own synthesis 9 and the other genes of the ara system.
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In the presence of arabinose, AraC stimulates initiation of mRNA synthesis from the promoters  pE ,  p
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FGH ,  pBAD (Ref. 10) and p J , a promoter serving a gene of unknown function 11 . At pBAD , the AraC protein not only acts positively to stimulate transcription in the presence of arabinose, but also acts negatively in the absence of arabinose to repress transcription initiation 3 ; whereas at  pC , AraC acts negatively in the presence or absence of arabinose 9 .
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AraC protein functions as a homodimer. The monomer possesses two domains, a dimerization domain that also binds arabinose and a DNA-binding domain.
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The DNA loop that is formed in the absence of arabinose accomplishes several things for the arabinose system.
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First, its presence sterically blocks access of RNA polymerase to the pBAD promoter 17, thus holding the basal level
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of  pBAD expression at a low level.
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Unfortunately, the araC±P BAD system and the associated high-capacity, low-affinity l-arabinose transporter AraE display autocatalytic behaviour and suffer from all-or-none expression in E. coli (Siegele & Hu, 1997). Rather than varying the level of gene expression in individual cells of the culture, the concentration of arabinose in the medium changes the fraction of cells that are fully induced.
In the standard E.coli stain used in the lab the linear induction with increasing arabinose concentration is disrupted by interaction of the system with the gene coding for the arabinose transporter '''araE'''. The endogenous pBAD promoter which controls the araE gene is upregulated by an increasing concentration of arabinose. Therefore, with higher level of the monosaccharide in the medium, more relevant transporters are present in the plasma membrane and therefore the rate of uptake rises accordingly.   
In the standard E.coli stain used in the lab the linear induction with increasing arabinose concentration is disrupted by interaction of the system with the gene coding for the arabinose transporter '''araE'''. The endogenous pBAD promoter which controls the araE gene is upregulated by an increasing concentration of arabinose. Therefore, with higher level of the monosaccharide in the medium, more relevant transporters are present in the plasma membrane and therefore the rate of uptake rises accordingly.   

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Low Level Expression

For our in vivo work, we needed to be able to express reflectin at low levels, and control the level of expression reliably. Therefore, we expressed reflectin under an arabinose inducible promoter (pBad) on a low copy plasmid (PSB3K3) in cells with a titratable response to arabinose.

pBAD promoter

To obtain a linear titratable relation between the concentration of arabinose in the medium and the level of the gene reflectin expression under the control of the pBAD promoter, a special strain of bacteria needs to be used.

the araC±P BAD system offers regu-latable control of gene expression in the presence of inducer and tight control in the absence of inducer.

The inducible pBAD promoter [http://partsregistry.org/wiki/index.php?title=Part:BBa_I0500 I0500] we used is tightly controlled by two factors:

  • L-arabinose monosaccharide taken up by the cell from the medium, which acts as an inducer.
  • AraC protein included in the I0500 biobrick, which acts an a repressor.

Write more about the induction-repression mechanism. Where does the pBAD promoter comes from?

The arabinose system enables E. coli and its relatives to take up the pentose L-arabinose from the growth medium using products of the unlinked araE and araFGH genes, and then convert intracellular arabinose in three steps catalyzed by the products of the araBAD genes to D-xylulose-5-phosphate (Fig. 1). This then enters the pentose phosphate shunt. AraC protein regulates expression of its own synthesis 9 and the other genes of the ara system. In the presence of arabinose, AraC stimulates initiation of mRNA synthesis from the promoters pE , p FGH , pBAD (Ref. 10) and p J , a promoter serving a gene of unknown function 11 . At pBAD , the AraC protein not only acts positively to stimulate transcription in the presence of arabinose, but also acts negatively in the absence of arabinose to repress transcription initiation 3 ; whereas at pC , AraC acts negatively in the presence or absence of arabinose 9 .

AraC protein functions as a homodimer. The monomer possesses two domains, a dimerization domain that also binds arabinose and a DNA-binding domain.

The DNA loop that is formed in the absence of arabinose accomplishes several things for the arabinose system. First, its presence sterically blocks access of RNA polymerase to the pBAD promoter 17, thus holding the basal level of pBAD expression at a low level.

Unfortunately, the araC±P BAD system and the associated high-capacity, low-affinity l-arabinose transporter AraE display autocatalytic behaviour and suffer from all-or-none expression in E. coli (Siegele & Hu, 1997). Rather than varying the level of gene expression in individual cells of the culture, the concentration of arabinose in the medium changes the fraction of cells that are fully induced.

In the standard E.coli stain used in the lab the linear induction with increasing arabinose concentration is disrupted by interaction of the system with the gene coding for the arabinose transporter araE. The endogenous pBAD promoter which controls the araE gene is upregulated by an increasing concentration of arabinose. Therefore, with higher level of the monosaccharide in the medium, more relevant transporters are present in the plasma membrane and therefore the rate of uptake rises accordingly.

Read more about araE! low affinity high-capacity transporter.

This induction of arabinose transporter can be circumvented by deleting the chromosomal araE gene and replacing it with a plasmid-borne copy of the araE under the control of a constitutive promoter.

One of the strains adapted for this purpose is [http://cgsc.biology.yale.edu/Strain.php?ID=111773 BW27783]], which we obtained from...

It is also important to mention that the titratable response is additionally affected by degradation of the arabinose at low concentrations of the monosaccharide. Arabinose breakdown is mediated by the araBAD genes.

Another arabinose transporter is araFGH and it should also be constitutively expressed to guarantee linear response.


This is achieved by introduction of a mutant lacY gene. LacY A177C allows for downhill transport of arabinose, as well as maltose, palatinose, sucrose, and cellobiose (3), but does not actively transport these sugars (4). Lactose import is not affected in this mutant. So, PBAD promoters in cells lacking endogeneous arabinose importers and containing LacY A177C are linearly responsible to arabinose at the individual cell level.

pBAD is an E.coli promoter that is induced by L-arabinose. In the absence of arabinose, the repressor protein AraC (BBa_I13458) binds to the AraI1 operator site of pBAD and the upstream operator site AraO2, blocking transcription [1]. In the presence of arabinose, AraC binds to it and changes its conformation such that it interacts with the AraI1 and AraI2 operator sites, permitting transcription [1].

Constructs

In this experiment we used confocal microscopy to compare distribution of Reflectin A1 when it is expressed at high and low levels in E.coli cells. In order to do so, we used four different plasmids with Reflectin A1 gene expressed under the control of the pBAD promoter, and their assembly is described in this section. The constructs we relied on are the following:

GA1 Reflectin A1 on a high copy number plasmid [http://partsregistry.org/Part:pSB1A3 pSB1A3]
GA2 Reflectin A1 on a low copy number plasmid [http://partsregistry.org/Part:pSB3K3 pSB3K3]
GA13 Transcriptional fusion of Reflectin A1 and GFP on a high copy number plasmid [http://partsregistry.org/Part:pSB1A3 pSB1A3]
GA14 Transcriptional fusion of Reflectin A1 and GFP on a low copy number plasmid [http://partsregistry.org/Part:pSB3K3 pSB3K3]

Observations

When reflectin was expressed on a low copy plasmid, we saw fewer inclusion bodies than when expressed on a high copy plasmid.

Induction

Using a plate reader, we measured the expression of reflectin-GFP over time after inducing with arabinose. We saw that reflectin does not appear to be particularly toxic to E. Coli.

References

Khlebnikov, A., K.A. Datsenko, T. Skaug, B.L. Wanner, J.D. Keasling 2001. Homogeneous expression of the P(BAD) promoter in Escherichia coli by constitutive expression of the low-affinity high-capacity AraE transporter. Microbiol 147:3241-3247