Expression Optimization and Inducible Negative Feedback in Cell-Free Systems

Abstract

Synthetic biology offers great promise to a variety of applications through the forward engineering of biological function. Most efforts in this field have focused on employing living cells. Cell-free approaches, on the other hand, offer simpler and more flexible contexts, but few synthetic systems based on cell-free protein expression have been constructed. Here, we evaluate cell-free regulatory systems based on T7 promoter driven expression, and we demonstrate negative feedback, an essential motif in many natural and engineered systems. First, we characterize variants of TetR and LacI repressible T7 promoters in a cell-free context and examine sequence elements that determine expression efficiency. Then, we explore different approaches for composing regulatory systems, leading to the implementation of inducible negative feedback in E. coli extracts and in the minimal PURE system, which consists of purified proteins necessary for transcription and translation. Our quantitative cell-free component characterizations and demonstration of negative feedback embody important steps on the path to harnessing biological function in a bottom up fashion.