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Synthetic biology

Toehold gene switches make big footprints

Nature volume 516, pages 333–334 (2014)Cite this article

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The development of RNA-based devices called toehold switches that regulate translation might usher in an era in which protein production can be linked to almost any RNA input and provide precise, low-cost diagnostics.

A fundamental tool of synthetic biology is a type of genetic device that controls the expression of target genes in a trigger-inducible manner, and so can be used to predictably and robustly program cellular behaviour. The number of such gene switches is growing, and switches have been successfully used in combination with other components, such as enzymes to assemble metabolic pathways that produce biofuels1 and therapeutic drugs2, and in designer cells that have the potential to correct metabolic diseases3,4,5. But the design of circuits of interconnecting switches is often complicated by the fact that each switch is made of natural components and is sensitive to its own predetermined trigger compound. A strategy that produces compatible gene switches tailored to desired trigger compounds would enable the switches to be easily assembled in combination, increasing the precision and complexity with which cellular behaviour can be programmed. Writing in Cell, Green et al.6 describe a method for generating gene switches that can indeed be tailored to desired RNA inputs.

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Figure 1: The design of toehold switches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Simon Ausländer and Martin Fussenegger are in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.,

    Simon Ausländer & Martin Fussenegger

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  1. Simon Ausländer
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  2. Martin Fussenegger
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Correspondence to Martin Fussenegger.

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Ausländer, S., Fussenegger, M. Toehold gene switches make big footprints. Nature 516, 333–334 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/516333a

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