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From 2012.igem.org

Background

Bacteriophytochrome

Phytochromes are light receptor proteins that are used in order to sense the presence or lack of light. They are prevalent in plants and are used to control morphological developments. These developments include seed germination, flower generation, responses to sunlight. Phytochromes are able to absorb light in the red (620-750 nm) and far-red region (700-800 nm).

A slightly modified version of the phytochrome is also present in bacteria. The aptly named bacteriophytochrome is present in photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic. Bacteriophytochromes from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Deinococcus radiodurans contain the structural motif: PAS-GAF-PHY-HisK. Bacteriophytochromes are able to alternate between the two distinct forms with different activities. The phytochrome naturally exists in the inactive state (Pr) where it can absorb red light and if the cell is overproducing the protein it appears blue. After it absorbs red light it undergoes a conformation change to the far-red state (Pfr). This is known as the active form, and makes the cell appear green. When, the cell is irradiated with far-red light then it is able to isomerize back to the Pr form.

In this way we produce an inducible switch and are able to control the colour of E. coli. If the cell is irradiated with red light and emits a green colour, hit it with far red light and emits a blue colour. The switch is controlled simply by light and due to this there is significant potential for differential expression of two different kinase pathways. There is also the advantage of a clear detection mechanism, which would be useful as a reported gene.

The bacteriophytochrome vector will be constructed using Gibson cloning.