Rational Design of a Set of Versatile Synthetic Biological Modules

Modularity is an essential property for rationally engineered standard biological parts and devices. This greatly underlies the success of synthetic biology. On the other hand, the building blocks and design principles available for constructing biological systems are still quite limited at present. It is necessary to explore the underlying mechanisms of existing, natural biological systems and to utilize them in designing novel genetic circuit modules. In this presentation, a set of modular synthetic biological parts and devices are rationally designed by making use of the h.r.p. (hypersensitive response and pathogenicity) gene regulatory system for Type III secretion in Pseudomonas syringae, that is to say that their inputs and outputs are promoters and do not rely on specific inducible promoters and could drive various cellular responses. This shows that there is a great potential that the h.r.p. system could be a master part for synthetic biology.