miRNA-mediated regulation of synthetic gene circuits in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

OpenPlant postdoc Francisco Navarro, in Prof David Baulcombe’s lab at the University of Cambridge, has published his work on regulation of synthetic gene circuits by miRNA in Chalmydomonas reinhardtii, in ACS Synthetic Biology. This work describes a new mechanism for regulation that can be used in in new synthetic biology applications in this green algae chassis.

Navarro F, Baulcombe DC (2019). miRNA-mediated regulation of synthetic gene circuits in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. ACS Synthetic Biology, https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.8b00393. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

microRNAs (miRNAs), small RNA molecules of 20-24 nts, have many features that make them useful tools for gene expression regulation - small size, flexible design, target predictability and action at a late stage of the gene expression pipeline. In addition, their role in fine-tuning gene expression can be harnessed to increase robustness of synthetic gene networks. In this work we apply a synthetic biology approach to characterize miRNA-mediated gene expression regulation in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. This characterization is then used to build tools based on miRNAs, such as synthetic miRNAs, miRNA-responsive 3'UTRs, miRNA decoys and self-regulatory loops. These tools will facilitate the engineering of gene expression for new applications and improved traits in this alga.