Negative regulation gene circuits for efflux pump control

Abstract

Synthetic biologists aim to design biological systems for a variety of industrial and medical applications, ranging from biofuel to drug production. Synthetic gene circuits regulating efflux pump protein expression can achieve this by driving desired substrates such as biofuels, pharmaceuticals, or other chemicals out of the cell in a precisely controlled manner. However, efflux pumps may introduce implicit negative feedback by pumping out intracellular inducer molecules that control gene circuits, which then can alter gene circuit function. Therefore, synthetic gene circuits must be carefully designed and constructed for precise efflux control. Here, we provide protocols for quantitatively modeling and building synthetic gene constructs for efflux pump regulation.