The Q-System as a Synthetic Transcriptional Regulator in Plants

Persad, Ramona; Reuter, Dirk; Dice, Lezlee; Nguyen, Mary-Anne; Rigoulot, Stephen B.; Layton, Jessica S.; Schmid, Manuel J.; Poindexter, Magen R.; Occhialini, Alessandro; Stewart, C. Neal; Lenaghan, Scott C.

doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.00245

Cited by 23 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Finally, in organisms such as Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes, the Gal4/UAS system has encountered limitations due to poor activity (Lynd and Lycett, 2012). Tools employing the Q System, such as HACK, may prove generalizable to more organisms (Matthews et al, 2019; Persad et al, 2020; Riabinina et al, 2016; Subedi et al, 2014; Wei et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemoreceptor Co-Expression inDrosophilaOlfactory Neurons

Task

Lin

Afify

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Drosophila olfactory neurons have long been thought to express only one chemosensory receptor modality. Using a new genetic knock-in strategy, we targeted the four co-receptors representing the chemosensory modes in Drosophila (Orco, Ir25a, Ir8a, Ir76b). Co-receptor knock-in expression patterns were verified as accurate representations of endogenous expression. We find extensive overlap in expression among the different co-receptors. As defined by innervation into antennal lobe glomeruli, Ir25a is broadly expressed in 88% of olfactory neuron classes and is co-expressed in 64% of Orco+ neuron classes, including all neuron classes in the maxillary palp. Orco, Ir8a, and Ir76b expression patterns are also expanded. Single sensillum recordings from Orco-expressing Ir25a mutant antennal and palpal neurons identify significant changes in olfactory responses. These results suggest polymodal expression and function of chemosensory receptors is common in olfactory neurons. We present a new map of the olfactory system reflecting this polymodal expression.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemoreceptor Co-Expression inDrosophilaOlfactory Neurons

Task

Lin

Afify

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…A new plant orthogonal regulatory system was recently reported that leveraged a yeast transcriptional regulator to induce synthetic activators or repressors (Belcher et al ., 2020). Such a system or a new synthetic Neurospora‐based 'Q‐system' (Persad et al ., 2020) could be coupled with designed synthetic promoters to tune signal specificity and sensitivity in plants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rational design and testing of abiotic stress‐inducible synthetic promoters from poplar cis‐regulatory elements

Yang

Lee

Poindexter

et al. 2021

Plant Biotechnology Journal

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Abiotic stress resistance traits may be especially crucial for sustainable production of bioenergy tree crops. Here, we show the performance of a set of rationally designed osmotic-related and salt stress-inducible synthetic promoters for use in hybrid poplar. De novo motif-detecting algorithms yielded 30 water-deficit (SD) and 34 salt stress (SS) candidate DNA motifs from relevant poplar transcriptomes. We selected three conserved water-deficit stress motifs (SD18, SD13 and SD9) found in 16 co-expressed gene promoters, and we discovered a well-conserved motif for salt response (SS16). We characterized several native poplar stress-inducible promoters to enable comparisons with our synthetic promoters. Fifteen synthetic promoters were designed using various SD and SS subdomains, in which heptameric repeats of five-to-eight subdomain bases were fused to a common core promoter downstream, which, in turn, drove a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene for reporter assays. These 15 synthetic promoters were screened by transient expression assays in poplar leaf mesophyll protoplasts and agroinfiltrated Nicotiana benthamiana leaves under osmotic stress conditions. Twelve synthetic promoters were induced in transient expression assays with a GFP readout. Of these, five promoters (SD18-1, SD9-2, SS16-1, SS16-2 and SS16-3) endowed higher inducibility under osmotic stress conditions than native promoters. These five synthetic promoters were stably transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana to study inducibility in whole plants. Herein, SD18-1 and SD9-2 were induced by waterdeficit stress, whereas SS16-1, SS16-2 and SS16-3 were induced by salt stress. The synthetic biology design pipeline resulted in five synthetic promoters that outperformed endogenous promoters in transgenic plants.

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“…Perhaps the only phenylpropanoid-related biosensor tested in plants, the Q-system derived from the fungus Neurospora crassa was adapted in Nicotiana benthamiana and soybean ( Reis et al, 2018 ; Persad et al, 2020 ). The Q-system consists of a transcriptional activator (QF) and its repressor (QS); the ligand, quinic acid, binds to QS to relieve the repression.…”

Section: Phenylpropanoid Biosensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-engineering Plant Phenylpropanoid Metabolism With the Aid of Synthetic Biosensors

Ferreira

Antunes

2021

Front. Plant Sci.

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Phenylpropanoids comprise a large class of specialized plant metabolites with many important applications, including pharmaceuticals, food nutrients, colorants, fragrances, and biofuels. Therefore, much effort has been devoted to manipulating their biosynthesis to produce high yields in a more controlled manner in microbial and plant systems. However, current strategies are prone to significant adverse effects due to pathway complexity, metabolic burden, and metabolite bioactivity, which still hinder the development of tailor-made phenylpropanoid biofactories. This gap could be addressed by the use of biosensors, which are molecular devices capable of sensing specific metabolites and triggering a desired response, as a way to sense the pathway’s metabolic status and dynamically regulate its flux based on specific signals. Here, we provide a brief overview of current research on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches to control phenylpropanoid synthesis and phenylpropanoid-related biosensors, advocating for the use of biosensors and genetic circuits as a step forward in plant synthetic biology to develop autonomously-controlled phenylpropanoid-producing plant biofactories.

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The Q-System as a Synthetic Transcriptional Regulator in Plants

Cited by 23 publications

References 33 publications

Chemoreceptor Co-Expression inDrosophilaOlfactory Neurons

Chemoreceptor Co-Expression inDrosophilaOlfactory Neurons

Rational design and testing of abiotic stress‐inducible synthetic promoters from poplar cis‐regulatory elements

Re-engineering Plant Phenylpropanoid Metabolism With the Aid of Synthetic Biosensors

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