scholarly journals dCas9 regulator to neutralize competition in CRISPRi circuits

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Ho Huang ◽  
Massimo Bellato ◽  
Yili Qian ◽  
Pablo Cárdenas ◽  
Lorenzo Pasotti ◽  
...  

AbstractCRISPRi-mediated gene regulation allows simultaneous control of many genes. However, highly specific sgRNA-promoter binding is, alone, insufficient to achieve independent transcriptional regulation of multiple targets. Indeed, due to competition for dCas9, the repression ability of one sgRNA changes significantly when another sgRNA becomes expressed. To solve this problem and decouple sgRNA-mediated regulatory paths, we create a dCas9 concentration regulator that implements negative feedback on dCas9 level. This allows any sgRNA to maintain an approximately constant dose-response curve, independent of other sgRNAs. We demonstrate the regulator performance on both single-stage and layered CRISPRi-based genetic circuits, zeroing competition effects of up to 15-fold changes in circuit I/O response encountered without the dCas9 regulator. The dCas9 regulator decouples sgRNA-mediated regulatory paths, enabling concurrent and independent regulation of multiple genes. This allows predictable composition of CRISPRi-based genetic modules, which is essential in the design of larger scale synthetic genetic circuits.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Andreas Angermayr ◽  
Guillaume Chevereau ◽  
Tobias Bollenbach

AbstractSlow growth and persistence are common strategies bacteria use to survive antibiotic treatment. Bacterial growth responses to antibiotics are quantitatively characterized by dose-response curves. The shape of the dose-response curve varies drastically between antibiotics and plays a key role in drug treatments, interactions, and resistance evolution. Understanding the mechanisms that shape the dose-response curve is a major challenge. Here we show in Escherichia coli that the distinctly shallow dose-response curve of the antibiotic trimethoprim is caused by a negative growth-mediated feedback loop: Trimethoprim slows growth, which in turn weakens the effect of this antibiotic. At the molecular level, this feedback is caused by the upregulation of the drug target dihydrofolate reductase (FolA/DHFR). We show that target upregulation is not a specific response to trimethoprim but a general response to slower growth, regardless of cause. Quantitatively, folA expression follows a universal trend line that only depends on growth rate and converges to a fixed maximum value at zero growth. Synthetically breaking the negative feedback loop or reversing it to positive feedback drastically steepens the dose-response curve; a similar steepening occurs under conditions of slower growth. A general mathematical model that captures growth-mediated feedback explains these phenomena. Our results indicate that growth-mediated feedback loops shape drug responses and could be exploited to design evolutionary traps that enable selection against drug resistance.


1991 ◽  
Vol 65 (02) ◽  
pp. 160-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Poggio ◽  
Armando Tripodi ◽  
Guglielmo Mariani ◽  
Pier Mannuccio Mannucci ◽  

SummaryBeing a putative predictor of ischemic heart disease, the measurement of factor VII (FVTI) coagulant activity will be presumably requested to clinical laboratories with increasing frequency. To assess the influence on FVII assays of different thromboplastins and FVII-deficient plasmas we compared performances of all possible combinations of 5 thromboplastins and 6 deficient plasmas. The reproducibility of the clotting times of the dose-response curves for human and rabbit thromboplastins were acceptable (CV lower than 7%), whereas bovine thromboplastin had a higher CV. Reproducibility was very similar for all deficient plasmas when they were used in combination with a given thromboplastin. Responsiveness of the dose-response curve did not depend on the deficient plasma but rather on the thromboplastin: one rabbit thromboplastin was the least responsive, the bovine thromboplastin the most responsive, the human and the remaining two rabbit thromboplastins had intermediate responsiveness. Assay sensitivity to cold-activated FVII varied according to the thromboplastin: the bovine thromboplastin was the most sensitive, the human thromboplastin the least sensitive, of the three rabbit thromboplastins two were relatively sensitive, one was almost insensitive. In conclusion, our results indicate that thromboplastin rather than deficient plasma is the crucial factor in the standardization of FVII assay.


1967 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Jacob Koed ◽  
Christian Hamburger

ABSTRACT Comparison of the dose-response curves for LH of ovine origin (NIH-LH-S8) and of human origin (IRP-HMG-2) using the OAAD test showed a small, though statistically significant difference, the dose-response curve for LH of human origin being a little flatter. Two standard curves for ovine LH obtained with 14 months' interval, were parallel but at different levels of ovarian ascorbic acid. When the mean ascorbic acid depletions were calculated as percentages of the control levels, the two curves for NIH-LH-S8 were identical. The use of standards of human origin in the OAAD test for LH activity of human preparations is recommended.


1961 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Miller

ABSTRACT Four per cent formaldehyde, insulin, or epinephrine in oil was injected for 5 days into pigeons subjected to varying degrees of hypophysectomy alone or together with large lesions in the median eminence and hypothalamus. Adrenals atrophied after the removal of the pars distalis alone or together with the neurohypophysis in untreated pigeons but showed markedly hypertrophic interrenal tissue (cortex in mammals) after treatment with formaldehyde or insulin. The slope of the dose-response curve was similar in operated and unoperated pigeons. The accumulation of bile in the liver parenchyma, which may occur after removal of the pars distalis, is an endogenous stress which was associated regularly with adrenal hypertrophy. After very large lesions of the median eminence and ventral hypothalamus in addition to total hypophysectomy, adrenals hypertrophied rather than atrophied, and the response to formaldehyde paralleled that in intact and »hypohysectomized« pigeons. Interrenal tissue was stimulated regularly; chromaffin tissue was partially degranulated, sometimes showed hyperplasia with colchicine, but only occasionally appeared hypertrophied. Epinephrine in nearly lethal doses caused only minimal adrenal enlargement. After adrenal denervation followed by hypophysectomy, the adrenals were still stimulated by formaldehyde. It appears that the interrenal tissue of the pigeon responds to a humoral stimulus not of hypophyseal origin in the absence of the hypophyseal-hypothalamic system.


1963 ◽  
Vol 42 (2_Suppl) ◽  
pp. S17-S30
Author(s):  
Fred A. Kind ◽  
Ralph I. Dorfman

ABSTRACT Thirty-seven steroids have been studied as orally effective inhibitors of ovulation in the mated oestrus rabbit. Norethisterone served as the reference standard and a dose response curve was established between the 0.31 and 1.25 mg dose levels. Nine highly active anti-ovulatory compounds are described listed in a decreasing order of potency with norethisterone having the arbitrary value of one: 6-chloro-Δ6-dehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (35), 6α-methyl-Δ1-dehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (≥ 10), 6-fluoro-Δ6-dehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone(9), 6-methyl-Δ6-dehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (5), Δ6-dehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (≥ 3), 6α-methyl-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (2.6), 6-chloro-Δ1,6-bisdehydro-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (≥ 2), 2-hydroxymethyl-17α-methyl-17β-hydroxyandrostan-3-one (≥ 2), and 6α-fluoro-16α-methyl-17α-acetoxyprogesterone (≥ 1.25). The anti-ovulatory activity of a compound was not related necessarily to the progestational activity of a compound nor to the anti-gonadotrophic activity as measured in parabiotic rats. 6-Chloro-Δ60dehydro-17-acetoxyprogesterone was as effective by gavage as previously shown by subcutaneous injection. 2-Hydroxymethyl-17α-methyl-17β-hydroxyandrostan-3-one was at least 2.5 times more active by gavage than by injection. While 17α-acetoxyprogesterone was a very weak anti-ovulatory steroid, modifications of the structure by addition of methyl or halogen at the 6α position with or without unsaturation greatly increased the activity. 6-Chloro-Δ6-dehydro-27α-acetoxyprogesterone was the most active compound in this series showing a relative potency of 3500 times that of the parent compound 17α-acetoxyprogesterone.


Author(s):  
Danlei Wang ◽  
Maartje H. Rietdijk ◽  
Lenny Kamelia ◽  
Peter J. Boogaard ◽  
Ivonne M. C. M. Rietjens

AbstractDevelopmental toxicity testing is an animal-intensive endpoints in toxicity testing and calls for animal-free alternatives. Previous studies showed the applicability of an in vitro–in silico approach for predicting developmental toxicity of a range of compounds, based on data from the mouse embryonic stem cell test (EST) combined with physiologically based kinetic (PBK) modelling facilitated reverse dosimetry. In the current study, the use of this approach for predicting developmental toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was evaluated, using benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) as a model compound. A rat PBK model of BaP was developed to simulate the kinetics of its main metabolite 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene (3-OHBaP), shown previously to be responsible for the developmental toxicity of BaP. Comparison to in vivo kinetic data showed that the model adequately predicted BaP and 3-OHBaP blood concentrations in the rat. Using this PBK model and reverse dosimetry, a concentration–response curve for 3-OHBaP obtained in the EST was translated into an in vivo dose–response curve for developmental toxicity of BaP in rats upon single or repeated dose exposure. The predicted half maximal effect doses (ED50) amounted to 67 and 45 mg/kg bw being comparable to the ED50 derived from the in vivo dose–response data reported for BaP in the literature, of 29 mg/kg bw. The present study provides a proof of principle of applying this in vitro–in silico approach for evaluating developmental toxicity of BaP and may provide a promising strategy for predicting the developmental toxicity of related PAHs, without the need for extensive animal testing.


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