Rational design of memory in eukaryotic cells

TLDR

The ability to logically engineer novel cellular functions promises a deeper understanding of biological systems. Here we demonstrate the rational design of cellular memory in yeast that employs autoregulatory transcriptional positive feedback. We built a set of transcriptional activators, quantitatively characterized their effects on gene expression in living cells, and modeled these activator‑promoter pairs to predict the behavior of the memory network. This study demonstrates that using components with measured quantitative parameters enables specification of eukaryotic regulatory networks with desired properties.

Abstract

The ability to logically engineer novel cellular functions promises a deeper understanding of biological systems. Here we demonstrate the rational design of cellular memory in yeast that employs autoregulatory transcriptional positive feedback. We built a set of transcriptional activators and quantitatively characterized their effects on gene expression in living cells. Modeling in conjunction with the quantitative characterization of the activator-promoter pairs accurately predicts the behavior of the memory network. This study demonstrates the power of taking advantage of components with measured quantitative parameters to specify eukaryotic regulatory networks with desired properties.