Engineering Escherichia coli to sense non-native environmental stimuli: synthetic chimera two-component systems

Abstract

The Two-component Regulatory System (TCS) is the primary mode that bacteria use to continuously sense the environment. A TCS is comprised of a periplasmic sensor Histidine kinase (HK) domain and a cytoplasmic Response regulator (RR) domain. The HK domain phosphorylates the RR domain to activate the effector gene expression. Utilizing a rational approach, the sensor HK was genetically engineered in Escherichia coli to create chimeric HK, by a rewiring or domain swapping strategy. Apart from the wild-type characteristics, chimeric HK imparts novel or the desired characteristics and ability to genetically engineered E. coli for its adaptation and survival. This review focuses on the design, potential applications, and future perspectives of chimeric HKs used as high throughput screening biosensors of various compounds.