Quantitative Characterization of Gene Regulatory Circuits Associated With Fungal Secondary Metabolism to Discover Novel Natural Products
Microbial genetic circuits are vital for regulating gene expression and synthesizing bioactive compounds. However, assessing their strength and timing, especially in multicellular fungi, remains challenging. Here, an advanced microfluidic platform is combined with a mathematical model enabling precise characterization of fungal gene regulatory circuits (GRCs) at the single-cell level. Utilizing this platform, the expression intensity and timing of 30 transcription factor-promoter combinations derived from two representative fungal GRCs, using the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans are determined. As a proof of concept, the selected GRC combination is utilized to successfully refactor the biosynthetic pathways of bioactive molecules, precisely control their production, and activate the expression of the silenced biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). This study provides insights into microbial gene regulation and highlights the potential of platform in fungal synthetic biology applications and the discovery of novel natural products.
Authors
- Anxin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3321-1149)
- Chunxiong Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8974-7693)
- Xinran Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3060-8554)
- Chunbo Lou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7941-6038)
- Sijing Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8849-9202)
- Wen‐Bing Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9184-3198)
- Shu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3767-4095)
- Sijia Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6119-0440)
- Lei Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3942-1414)
- Yanhong Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4355-3479)
- Yihua Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9362-512X)
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Microbiology Institute of Shaanxi (CN)
- Institute of Microbiology (CN)
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (CN)
- Center for Life Sciences (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2024-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202407195
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.17
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Key Research Program of Frontier Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences