In:
eLife, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, Vol. 4 ( 2015-10-05)
Abstract:
Engineers often use simplified models to test their ideas. For example, engineers test small-scale models of new airplane designs in wind tunnels to see how easily air flows by them. This saves the engineers the time and expense of building a full-sized aircraft only to learn it has serious design flaws. The interactions of genes and proteins within living cells can be incredibly complex, and working out how a particular network works can take months or years in living cells. To try to speed up and simplify the process, scientists are developing models that do not involve cells. These models replicate the chemistry inside of the cells and allow scientists to observe complex interactions between genes, proteins and other cellular components. Some scientists have recreated complex patterns of gene expression in these cell-free models, but these systems still take a long time to make. It is also not yet clear whether these models accurately depict what happens in living cells. Now, Niederholtmeyer, Sun et al. have created a cell-free system that allows the interactions of a large network of genes to be examined in a single day – a process that would previously have taken weeks or months. To test the model, Niederholtmeyer, Sun et al. recreated how networks of genes in the bacterium Escherichia coli interact to form “oscillations”, which produce a regular rhythm of gene expression. When the cell-free oscillator networks were inserted into live E. coli cells, the oscillators continued to produce the same patterns of gene expression as they did outside the cells. Overall, the experiments show that cell-free models can accurately reproduce, or emulate, the behavior of cellular networks. This work now opens the door for engineering ever more complex genetic networks in a cell-free system, which in turn will enable rapid prototyping and detailed characterization of complex biological reaction networks.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2050-084X
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.001
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.002
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.003
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.004
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.005
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.006
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.007
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.008
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.009
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.010
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.011
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.012
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.013
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.014
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.015
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.016
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.017
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.018
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.019
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.020
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.021
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.022
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.023
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.024
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.025
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.026
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.027
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.028
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.029
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.030
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.031
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.032
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.033
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.034
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.09771.035
Language:
English
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2687154-3
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