Team:BostonU/App 1

Recombinases are a class of proteins that recognize specific sites in a genome, and can rearrange the DNA located in between these sites and the sites themselves. Recombinases are widely used in synthetic biology to induce or knock down the expression of genes in vitro and in vivo. These reactions are generally one-directional and irreversible. A special class of recombinase proteins called integrases can induce these reactions, but can also reverse the reaction in the presence of another protein called a Recombinase Directionality Factor (RDF). By tightly temporally controlling the activity of an integrase and its corresponding RDF, a system could be engineered in which a cell could be induced to go back and forth between different phenotypes. Also, different integrase – RDF systems can recognize orthogonal DNA sequences. A system in which multiple orthogonal recognition sites is combined with tight temporal control over Integrases and their corresponding RDF’s could allow for high order genetic logic with multiple phenotypic outputs. This past summer, the team focused on developing the tools necessary to temporally control the activity of these exciting proteins with genetic logic applications.