期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2002
卷号：99
期号：26
页码：16587-16591
DOI：10.1073/pnas.252535999
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The construction of artificial networks of transcriptional control elements in living cells represents a new frontier for biological engineering. However, biological circuit engineers will have to confront their inability to predict the precise behavior of even the most simple synthetic networks, a serious shortcoming and challenge for the design and construction of more sophisticated genetic circuitry in the future. We propose a combined rational and evolutionary design strategy for constructing genetic regulatory circuits, an approach that allows the engineer to fine-tune the biochemical parameters of the networks experimentally in vivo. By applying directed evolution to genes comprising a simple genetic circuit, we demonstrate that a nonfunctional circuit containing improperly matched components can evolve rapidly into a functional one. In the process, we generated a library of genetic devices with a range of behaviors that can be used to construct more complex circuits.
