Séminaire externe - Ferdinand Greiss (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Abstract:

Life is a continuous process of information processing, replication, and adaptation. Building life-like systems from the bottom up can enhance our understanding of living systems and offer exciting opportunities for developing new biotechnologies, such as autonomous active matter and synthetic cells. Using cell-free gene expression systems, we have constructed genetically encoded systems using single DNA molecules as basic units of such life-like systems. We explored how genetic circuits make decisions under varying noise levels, studying the effects of high and low DNA copy numbers in microfluidic, cell-like compartments. We developed a rapid fluorescent reporter system to monitor individual nascent proteins, tracking their emergence from genes via RNA polymerase-mRNA-ribosome complexes. The co-expressional localization allowed us to engineer gene circuits on single DNA molecules outside the cellular confinements. By introducing native chromosomes into artificial systems, we observed a threefold swelling of the genome, driven by transcription as an energy source. This swelling by local nucleotide consumption places chromosomes into the category of active gels. These findings and technological achievements collectively represent significant progress in constructing autonomous, life-like systems from single DNA molecules, bringing us closer to the bottom-up engineering of genetically encoded active biomatter and synthetic cells.