Team:OUC-China/Description
Inspiration
Riboswitch is a structural genetic regulatory element that directly regulates the expression of downstream genes through the reaction of small molecules. It has a wide range of ligands, so it has great potential in the fields of synthetic biology. However, due to the diversity of downstream target genes, the secondary structure of riboswitches is often unstable, so riboswitches cannot be considered a modular component. In order to solve the problem of modularization of riboswitches, OUC-China team proposed a simple method to maintain the stability of the riboswitch secondary structure, making the riboswitch modular and capable of expressing any downstream genes.
Description
This year, the OUC-China team proposed a way to build modular riboswitch that allows the use of riboswitches to express any gene of interest. Since the direct addition of the gene of interest downstream of the riboswitch disrupts the secondary structure of the riboswitch, the most appropriate method for using a riboswitch now is to add a shorter sequence in front of the gene of interest to maintain the secondary structure of the riboswitch. Although the gene of interest can be expressed in this way, redundant sequences cause changes in the structure and function of the gene of interest (eg, formation of inclusion bodies, etc.), so we explore the principle to design the orf region, which is located before the GOI, can normalize the target gene.