A Riboswitch-based Inducible Gene Expression System for Mycobacteria

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2012 Jan 27

PMID 22279533

Citations 32

Authors

Jessica C Seeliger

Shana Topp

Kimberly M Sogi

Mary L Previti

Justin P Gallivan

Carolyn R Bertozzi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Research on the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) would benefit from novel tools for regulated gene expression. Here we describe the characterization and application of a synthetic riboswitch-based system, which comprises a mycobacterial promoter for transcriptional control and a riboswitch for translational control. The system was used to induce and repress heterologous protein overexpression reversibly, to create a conditional gene knockdown, and to control gene expression in a macrophage infection model. Unlike existing systems for controlling gene expression in Mtb, the riboswitch does not require the co-expression of any accessory proteins: all of the regulatory machinery is encoded by a short DNA segment directly upstream of the target gene. The inducible riboswitch platform has the potential to be a powerful general strategy for creating customized gene regulation systems in Mtb.

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