A single phosphatase can convert a robust step response into a graded, tunable or adaptive response.

Journal article

Many biological signalling pathways have evolved to produce responses to environmental signals that are robust to fluctuations in protein copy number and noise. Whilst beneficial for biology, this robustness can be problematic for synthetic biologists wishing to re-engineer and subsequently tune the response of a given system. Here we show that the well-characterized EnvZ/OmpR two-component signalling system from Escherichia coli possesses one such robust step response. However, the synthetic addition of just a single component into the system, an extra independently controllable phosphatase, can change this behaviour to become graded and tunable, and even show adaptation. Our approach introduces a new design principle which can be implemented simply in engineering and redesigning fast signal transduction pathways for synthetic biology.

Authors: Chang, Y; Armitage, J; Papachristodoulou, A; Wadhams, G

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Microbiology (Reading, England)
• Volume: 159
• Issue: Pt 7
• Pages: 1276-1285
• Publication date: 2013-07-01
• DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.066324-0
• EISSN: 1465-2080
• ISSN: 1350-0872
• Language: English
• Keywords: Escherichia coli; Escherichia coli Proteins; Genetic Engineering; Models, Biological; Protein Kinases; Trans-Activators; Synthetic Biology; Multienzyme Complexes; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases; Bacterial Proteins; Signal Transduction; Phosphoprotein Phosphatases