Editor's Summary

24 November 2005

Bacterial film

Phytochromes are membrane-bound photoreceptors found in plants and some bacteria. There are none in Escherichia coli, but with the introduction of a genetic circuit that fuses a cyanobacterial photoreceptor to an intracellular kinase, E. coli sees the light. The bacteria then act as a photographic film, producing a chemical image when light is projected onto it.

Brief Communications: Synthetic biology: Engineering Escherichia coli to see light

These smart bacteria 'photograph' a light pattern as a high-definition chemical image.

Anselm Levskaya, Aaron A. Chevalier, Jeffrey J. Tabor, Zachary Booth Simpson, Laura A. Lavery, Matthew Levy, Eric A. Davidson, Alexander Scouras, Andrew D. Ellington, Edward M. Marcotte and Christopher A. Voigt

doi:10.1038/nature04405

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (297K) | Supplementary information