Engineering a technology platform for monitoring gene expression dynamics within soil microbes in the undisturbed rhizosphere: lateral gene transfer, conditional guide RNAs, and sentinel plants
Profile
Engineering a technology platform for monitoring gene expression dynamics within soil microbes in the undisturbed rhizosphere: lateral gene transfer, conditional guide RNAs, and sentinel plants
PIs: Gozde Demirer, Bruce Hay, Elliot Meyerowitz, and Niles Pierce
Research Team: Julia Abrego, Shuwen (Eric) Lei, John Marken, Paul Tarr, and Yunqing Wang
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
Ecology and Biosphere Engineering Initiative
We propose to develop the first technology platform for continuously monitoring the expression dynamics of microbial genes of choice within the undisturbed rhizosphere by engineering efficient and promiscuous lateral gene transfer, programmable molecular signal transducers, and sentinel plants that integrate together to provide a "window" into the opaque rhizosphere by displaying aboveground optical changes in sentinel plant foliage in response to gene expression changes in soil bacteria at the roots. This platform will enable mechanistic investigations into the structure and function of the rhizosphere and its impact on sustainability-relevant processes like microbially-mediated nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas emission.