Team:Linkoping Sweden/Science2Go/08 11

Programmable bacteria detect and record an environmental signal in the gut

2015-08-11

The gut is a hostile environment made up by millions of different microorganisms that affect our health and wellbeing in many, many ways. A newly created bacterium that can survive in the gut and also sense and report its experiences to the user may give new insight into this microenvironment.

It is done by utilizing the bacteria’s genetic memory which is created by changes to the original bacteria over several generations in the gut. The gut’s specific environment results in small changes to the bacteria which can then be recorded. In this case, scientists have been able to create bacteria that can sense and record if the bacteria have been exposed to a specific molecule. These bacteria could in the future hopefully be used to monitor the complex environment of the gut.

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Reference

Kotula J, Karns J, Shaket L, Siraj L, Collins J, Way J, Silver P. Programmable bacteria detect and record an environmental signal in the gut. Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences (2014, Apr), 1;111(13):4838-43.