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Synthetic biology

Engineering Escherichia coli to see light

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These smart bacteria ‘photograph’ a light pattern as a high-definition chemical image.

Abstract

We have designed a bacterial system that is switched between different states by red light. The system consists of a synthetic sensor kinase that allows a lawn of bacteria to function as a biological film, such that the projection of a pattern of light on to the bacteria produces a high-definition (about 100 megapixels per square inch), two-dimensional chemical image. This spatial control of bacterial gene expression could be used to ‘print’ complex biological materials, for example, and to investigate signalling pathways through precise spatial and temporal control of their phosphorylation steps.

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Figure 1: Light imaging by engineered Escherichia coli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biophysics Program, University of California, San Francisco, 94143, California, USA

    Anselm Levskaya & Christopher A. Voigt

  2. Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology and Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Aaron A. Chevalier, Jeffrey J. Tabor, Zachary Booth Simpson, Laura A. Lavery, Matthew Levy, Eric A. Davidson, Alexander Scouras, Andrew D. Ellington & Edward M. Marcotte

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas, Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Andrew D. Ellington & Edward M. Marcotte

  4. Department of Synthetic Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Christopher A. Voigt

  5. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, 94107, California, USA

    Christopher A. Voigt

Authors
  1. Anselm Levskaya
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  2. Aaron A. Chevalier
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  3. Jeffrey J. Tabor
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  4. Zachary Booth Simpson
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  5. Laura A. Lavery
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  6. Matthew Levy
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  7. Eric A. Davidson
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  8. Alexander Scouras
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  9. Andrew D. Ellington
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  10. Edward M. Marcotte
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  11. Christopher A. Voigt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher A. Voigt.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Levskaya, A., Chevalier, A., Tabor, J. et al. Engineering Escherichia coli to see light. Nature 438, 441–442 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04405

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