Balagaddé, Frederick K. and Song, Hao and Ozaki, Jun and Collins, Cynthia H. and Barnet, Matthew and Arnold, Frances H. and Quake, Stephen R. and You, Lingchong (2008) A synthetic Escherichia coli predator–prey ecosystem. Molecular Systems Biology, 4 . Art. No. 187. ISSN 1744-4292 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:BALmsb08
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Abstract
We have constructed a synthetic ecosystem consisting of two Escherichia coli populations, which communicate bi-directionally through quorum sensing and regulate each other's gene expression and survival via engineered gene circuits. Our synthetic ecosystem resembles canonical predator–prey systems in terms of logic and dynamics. The predator cells kill the prey by inducing expression of a killer protein in the prey, while the prey rescue the predators by eliciting expression of an antidote protein in the predator. Extinction, coexistence and oscillatory dynamics of the predator and prey populations are possible depending on the operating conditions as experimentally validated by long-term culturing of the system in microchemostats. A simple mathematical model is developed to capture these system dynamics. Coherent interplay between experiments and mathematical analysis enables exploration of the dynamics of interacting populations in a predictable manner.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Molecular Systems Biology is an open-access journal published by European Molecular Biology Organization and Nature Publishing Group. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Licence. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Creation of derivative works is permitted but the resulting work may be distributed only under the same or similar licence to this one. This licence does not permit commercial exploitation without specific permission. Received 27 November 2007; Accepted 7 March 2008; Published online 15 April 2008. We thank M Elowitz for the repressilator plasmid; J Leadbetter for P. aeruginosa chromosomal DNA; R Weiss for plasmid pSND-1; RS Cox III, C Ward, P Blais, P Marguet and M Gray for preliminary study and technical assistance; E Toone and X Chen for synthesizing 3OC12HSL. This study was supported by grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (FHA), National Institutes of Health (LY and FHA), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (LY) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (SRQ). Supplementary information is available at the Molecular Systems Biology website (www.nature.com/msb). |
| Subject Keywords: | microchemostat; microfluidics; quorum sensing; synthetic biology; systems biology |
| Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:BALmsb08 |
| Persistent URL: | http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:BALmsb08 |
| Alternative URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/msb.2008.24 |
| Official Citation: | Molecular Systems Biology 4:187 |
| Usage Policy: | This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Creation of derivative works is permitted but the resulting work may be distributed only under the same or similar licence to this one. This licence does not permit commercial exploitation without specific permission. |
| Metadata Review: | All Records > Caltech Library Services |
| ID Code: | 10665 |
| Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS |
| Deposited By: | Archive Administrator |
| Deposited On: | 30 May 2008 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Feb 2009 13:27 |
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