An Intelligent Synthetic Bacterium for Chronological Toxicant Detection, Biodegradation, and Its Subsequent Suicide

作者：Huan Liu, Lige Zhang, Weiwei Wang, Haiyang Hu, Xingyu Ouyang, Ping Xu, Hongzhi Tang · 发表于：Advanced Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1002/advs.202304318 · 被引用次数：23 · 研究领域：bioluminescence and chemiluminescence research、Gene Regulatory Network Analysis、Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology

Abstract Modules, toolboxes, and synthetic biology systems may be designed to address environmental bioremediation. However, weak and decentralized functional modules require complex control. To address this issue, an integrated system for toxicant detection and biodegradation, and subsequent suicide in chronological order without exogenous inducers is constructed. Salicylic acid, a typical pollutant in industrial wastewater, is selected as an example to demonstrate this design. Biosensors are optimized by regulating the expression of receptors and reporters to get 2‐fold sensitivity and 6‐fold maximum output. Several stationary phase promoters are compared, and promoter P fic is chosen to express the degradation enzyme. Two concepts for suicide circuits are developed, with the toxin/antitoxin circuit showing potent lethality. The three modules are coupled in a stepwise manner. Detection and biodegradation, and suicide are sequentially completed with partial attenuation compared to pre‐integration, except for biodegradation, being improved by the replacements of ribosome binding site. Finally, a long‐term stability test reveals that the engineered strain maintained its function for ten generations. The study provides a novel concept for integrating and controlling functional modules that can accelerate the transition of synthetic biology from conceptual to practical applications.