Quantitative design of regulatory elements based on high-precision strength prediction using artificial neural network

PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e60288. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060288. Epub 2013 Apr 1.

Abstract

Accurate and controllable regulatory elements such as promoters and ribosome binding sites (RBSs) are indispensable tools to quantitatively regulate gene expression for rational pathway engineering. Therefore, de novo designing regulatory elements is brought back to the forefront of synthetic biology research. Here we developed a quantitative design method for regulatory elements based on strength prediction using artificial neural network (ANN). One hundred mutated Trc promoter & RBS sequences, which were finely characterized with a strength distribution from 0 to 3.559 (relative to the strength of the original sequence which was defined as 1), were used for model training and test. A precise strength prediction model, NET90_19_576, was finally constructed with high regression correlation coefficients of 0.98 for both model training and test. Sixteen artificial elements were in silico designed using this model. All of them were proved to have good consistency between the measured strength and our desired strength. The functional reliability of the designed elements was validated in two different genetic contexts. The designed parts were successfully utilized to improve the expression of BmK1 peptide toxin and fine-tune deoxy-xylulose phosphate pathway in Escherichia coli. Our results demonstrate that the methodology based on ANN model can de novo and quantitatively design regulatory elements with desired strengths, which are of great importance for synthetic biology applications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Computer Simulation
  • Escherichia coli / genetics*
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic*
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Scorpion Venoms / genetics*
  • Scorpion Venoms / metabolism
  • Scorpions
  • Xylose / analogs & derivatives
  • Xylose / metabolism

Substances

  • KBT toxin, Buthus martensii
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Scorpion Venoms
  • deoxyxylulose phosphate
  • Xylose

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Program, grant no. 2012CB721104), the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” Program, grant no. 2012AA02A701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31170101 and 31100073), “Technology Innovation Action Plan” Key Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (grant no. 10dz1910100), and the major Projects of Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. KSCX2-EW-J-12). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.