Tag: gene expression

Manipulation of an organism’s metabolism lies at the heart of metabolic engineering

August 7, 2023

Since 2000s, there has been much interest in the use of metabolic engineering to create organisms able to synthesize a variety of useful chemical compounds such as biofuels, drugs, and speciality chemicals. So, what is metabolic engineering? At the heart of metabolic engineering is a sequence of carefully choreographed genetic engineering steps that express new … More Manipulation of an organism’s metabolism lies at the heart of metabolic engineering

Codon utilisation pattern is unique to each species and represents a species boundary

November 7, 2022

What demarcates a bird from an elephant is clear from their appearance? But, what is less apparent are the differences between two different species of microbes which are similarly round-shaped? The answer lies in the unique codon utilisation pattern of each species which is a representation of species boundary. Codon utilisation refers to the specific … More Codon utilisation pattern is unique to each species and represents a species boundary

Protein degradation is one of two switches that control gene expression

November 27, 2021

At any point in time, not all genes in the genome are expressed. The first step of expression would involve transcription of the pertinent gene. Once the gene has been transcribed and translated, the enzyme or protein would remain active in the cell. So, how does a cell shutdown the activity of an enzyme or … More Protein degradation is one of two switches that control gene expression

CRISPR-Cas9 mediated promoter knock-in activates silent biosynthetic gene clusters

April 2, 2021

Even in bacterial species categorized as prolific producers of secondary metabolites, many biosynthetic gene clusters remain silent under standard laboratory cultivation conditions. Hence, to help improve the types of secondary metabolites that could be produced, activation of silent biosynthetic gene clusters has emerged as an important challenge in biotechnology. To this end, many approaches have … More CRISPR-Cas9 mediated promoter knock-in activates silent biosynthetic gene clusters

Understanding the physiology of different cell types in the Human Cell Atlas research programme

February 10, 2021

There are approximately 37 trillion cells in a human body categorized into about 300 cell types. While modern tools such as gene sequencing and cell profiling techniques have advanced our understanding of different cell types in the body, we still know relatively little of the consortium of different cell types in the body, how they … More Understanding the physiology of different cell types in the Human Cell Atlas research programme

Strong terminators are needed to help increase gene expression in heterologous gene expression on plasmids

February 3, 2021

Gene expression based on genes inserted in plasmids rely on the presence of promoters and terminators for controlling the transcription process. While the role of promoters in heterologous gene expression is frequently emphasised, that of terminators is less well understood. Specifically, strong promoters are commonly needed to help improve the gene expression efficiency yielding a … More Strong terminators are needed to help increase gene expression in heterologous gene expression on plasmids

Utility of 2D versus 3D cell culture

January 27, 2021

Traditional two-dimensional cell culture is often associated with lacking tissue mimicry given that cells in tissues are exposed to a three dimensional space of extracellular matrix where cellular signalling and cell-cell interactions are propagated. Thus, there has been a move towards the development of various natural and synthetic matrixes for use in three-dimensional cell culture … More Utility of 2D versus 3D cell culture

Promoters contain many regulatory motifs that help regulate gene expression

December 4, 2020

Gene expression has to be tightly regulated in order for cells to not waste precious metabolic resources on unnecessary proteins at particular stages in development or growth phase. To do this, cells have evolved complex regulatory mechanisms that enable cells to dynamically modulate the expression of different genes at different stages of cell growth. For … More Promoters contain many regulatory motifs that help regulate gene expression

Profiling cryptic metabolites from microbes

November 27, 2020

Natural products are a rich source of metabolites useful for medicinal uses as antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs or anti-cancer agents. Typically obtained as secondary metabolites from microorganisms such as Streptomyces and actinomycetes, these natural products constitute about 35% of all approved medicines by the Food and Drug Administration of U.S. and the European Medicine Agency. However, … More Profiling cryptic metabolites from microbes

Genetic engineering benefits from the ability to mix and match gene regulatory elements and gene cassette in a combinatorial fashion for tuning gene expression levels

October 28, 2020

Modern synthetic biology and molecular cloning tools have afforded the ability to use different gene regulatory elements for controlling expression of a particular gene. Use of such gene regulatory elements do not need to be restricted to the gene to which it originally controlled. For example, a promoter from gene A could also be used … More Genetic engineering benefits from the ability to mix and match gene regulatory elements and gene cassette in a combinatorial fashion for tuning gene expression levels