Construction of an inducible amyloid expression circuit in Bacillus megaterium: A case study with CsgA and TasA

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Title Construction of an inducible amyloid expression circuit in Bacillus megaterium: A case study with CsgA and TasA
Authors Elin M. Larsson, John B. McManus and Richard M. Murray
Source bioRxiv 858266
Abstract Environmental applications of synthetic biology such as water remediation require engineered strains to function robustly in a fluctuating and potentially hostile environment. The construction of synthetic biofilm formation circuits could potentially alleviate this issue by promoting cell survival. Towards this end, we construct a xylose-inducible system for the expression of the functional amyloids CsgA and TasA in the soil bacterium Bacillus megaterium. We find that although both amyloids are expressed, only TasA is successfully exported from the cells. Furthermore, expression of CsgA results in a significant growth penalty for the cells while expression of TasA does not. Finally, we show that TasA expression conveys a small but detectable increase in cells’ adhesion to nickel beads. These results suggest that TasA is a promising candidate for future work on synthetic biofilm formation in B. megaterium.
Type Preprint
URL https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/858266v1
DOI 10.1101/858266
Tag LMM19-biorxiv
ID 2019m
Funding ARL Silicon-Cell
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