ArticlePeerJ2015
An engineered bacterium auxotrophic for an unnatural amino acid: a novel biological containment system.
Article in PeerJ, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Single-Step Chromosomal Engineering Integrates Biocontainment and Therapeutic Function for Regulatory-Oriented Live Biotherapeutic Chassis Design.Pharmaceutics · 2026Article
- Decoding the microbiome-immune crosstalk in cancer: from mechanisms to therapeutic translation.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Microbial allies in skin trauma recovery: from immune modulation to engineered probiotic therapeutics.Burns & trauma · 2026Review
- A Programmable Finite-Replicated Organism Framework for Balanced Safety and Functionality.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Beyond Cutting: CRISPR-Driven Synthetic Biology Toolkit for Next-Generation Microalgal Metabolic Engineering.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Xenobiology for the Biocontainment of Synthetic Organisms: Opportunities and Challenges.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- A novel vaccine strategy using quick and easy conversion of bacterial pathogens to unnatural amino acid-auxotrophic suicide derivatives.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Genetically stable kill-switch using "demon and angel" expression construct of essential genes.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Artificial Small Molecules as Cofactors and Biomacromolecular Building Blocks in Synthetic Biology: Design, Synthesis, Applications, and Challenges.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- A strategy for addicting transgene-free bacteria to synthetic modified metabolites.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Phosphite synthetic auxotrophy as an effective biocontainment strategy for the industrial chassis Pseudomonas putida.Microbial cell factories · 2022Article
- Rebooting life: engineering non-natural nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites in microorganisms.Microbial cell factories · 2022Review
- Reagentless electrochemical biosensors through incorporation of unnatural amino acids on the protein structure.Biosensors & bioelectronics · 2022Article
- An Unnatural Amino Acid-Regulated Growth Controller Based on Informational Disturbance.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Metabolic engineering generates a transgene-free safety switch for cell therapy.Nature biotechnology · 2020Article
- Incorporation of nonstandard amino acids into proteins: principles and applications.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2020Review
- Conformational landscape of substituted prolines.Biophysical reviews · 2020Review
- Incorporation of non-standard amino acids into proteins: challenges, recent achievements, and emerging applications.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2019Review
- Translational Control using an Expanded Genetic Code.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Auxotrophy to Xeno-DNA: an exploration of combinatorial mechanisms for a high-fidelity biosafety system for synthetic biology applications.Journal of biological engineering · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biological containment is a genetic technique that programs dangerous organisms to grow only in the laboratory and to die in the natural environment. Auxotrophy for a substance not found in the natural environment is an ideal biological containment. Here, we constructed an Escherichia coli strain that cannot survive in the absence of the unnatural amino acid 3-iodo-L-tyrosine. This synthetic auxotrophy was achieved by conditional production of the antidote protein against the highly toxic enzyme colicin E3. An amber stop codon was inserted in the antidote gene. The translation of the antidote mRNA was controlled by a translational switch using amber-specific 3-iodo-L-tyrosine incorporation. The antidote is synthesized only when 3-iodo-L-tyrosine is present in the culture medium. The viability of this strain rapidly decreased with less than a 1 h half-life after removal of 3-iodo-L-tyrosine, suggesting that the decay of the antidote causes the host killing by activated colicin E3 in the absence of this unnatural amino acid. The contained strain grew 1.5 times more slowly than the parent strains. The escaper frequency was estimated to be 1.4 mutations (95% highest posterior density 1.1-1.8) per 10(5) cell divisions. This containment system can be constructed by only plasmid introduction without genome editing, suggesting that this system may be applicable to other microbes carrying toxin-antidote systems similar to that of colicin E3.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.