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Synthetic Biology pp 61–93Cite as

Synthetic Biology with an All E. coli TXTL System: Quantitative Characterization of Regulatory Elements and Gene Circuits

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1772))

Abstract

Over the past decade, a new generation of cell-free transcription-translation (TXTL) systems has been devised for emerging multidisciplinary applications. The DNA-dependent in vitro protein synthesis technology has been developed to tackle applications in synthetic biology, biological and chemical engineering, as well as quantitative disciplines such as biophysics. In addition to being convenient at the biosafety level, the new TXTL platforms are user-friendly; more affordable; more versatile at the level of transcription, with a TX repertoire covering hundreds of parts; and more powerful, with protein production reaching a few mg/mL in batch and continuous modes. As a consequence, TXTL is rising up as a popular research tool and is used by a growing research community. While TXTL is proving reliable for an increasing number of applications, it is important to gain appropriate TXTL skills, especially for quantitative applications. TXTL has become particularly useful to rapidly prototype genetic devices , from single regulatory elements to elementary circuit motifs . In this chapter, we describe the basic procedures to develop appropriate TXTL practices for the characterization of such genetic parts. We use an all E. coli TXTL system developed in our lab, now commercialized by Arbor Biosciences under the name myTXTL.

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (contract HR0011-16-C-01-34) and the Office of Naval Research (award N00014-13-1-0074).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics and Nanotechnology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Ryan Marshall & Vincent Noireaux

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  1. Ryan Marshall
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  2. Vincent Noireaux
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Correspondence to Vincent Noireaux .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Agilent Technologies, Inc, La Jolla, California, USA

    Jeffrey Carl Braman

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Marshall, R., Noireaux, V. (2018). Synthetic Biology with an All E. coli TXTL System: Quantitative Characterization of Regulatory Elements and Gene Circuits. In: Braman, J. (eds) Synthetic Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1772. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7795-6_4

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