Glowing bacteria sensor speeds up building gene-silencing pest fighters
Navarro-Escalante L, VanDieren AJ, Barrick JE
Pest Control
The aphids stippling your roses and vegetables could one day be knocked back by their own gut bacteria instead of a spray bottle, and this tool makes those bacteria far easier to engineer.
Some bacteria can be reprogrammed to make a special RNA molecule that shuts down specific genes in insects that eat plants, a targeted alternative to broad pesticides. The problem is figuring out which engineered bacteria make the most of it. Researchers created a sensor that glows brighter when a bacterium produces more of this molecule, giving them a fast way to pick the best strains, including bacteria that naturally live inside aphids.
Key Findings
Built a fluorescent biosensor using split-protein fusion to viral RNA-binding domains that reports relative dsRNA levels inside living bacteria
Tested multiple sensor designs in E. coli to find the version that best signals dsRNA accumulation
Used the optimized sensor to confirm boosted dsRNA output in engineered Serratia symbiotica, including a new RNase III deletion mutant
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists built a glowing sensor that lets them fine-tune bacteria to churn out large amounts of double-stranded RNA, the molecule that can switch off specific genes in pests. This speeds up the design of microbes that could deliver pest control without chemical sprays.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Genetic Biosensor for Optimizing Double-Stranded RNA Production by Bacteria.
Bacteria can be engineered to produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules that induce a targeted RNA interference (RNAi) response in plants and animals for applications ranging from pest control ...
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