Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Antibiotic Selection

Antibiotic Selection

Microbial Bioremediation of Pesticides

Microbial Bioremediation of Pesticides

Pesticides often feature structurally complex chemical architectures, incorporating halogen groups and multiple aromatic rings. These characteristics confer high chemical stability, rendering many pesticides resistant to natural degradation processes. This resistance poses significant environmental concerns, as persistent pesticide residues can accumulate in ecosystems and affect non-target organisms.Despite the inherent stability of many pesticides, certain microorganisms possess the metabolic...

CRISPR and crRNAs

CRISPR and crRNAs

Bacteria and archaea are susceptible to viral infections just like eukaryotes; therefore, they have developed a unique adaptive immune system to protect themselves. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) are present in more than 45% of known bacteria and 90% of known archaea.
The CRISPR-Cas system stores a copy of foreign DNA in the host genome and uses it to identify the foreign DNA upon reinfection. CRISPR-Cas has three different...

Biological Methods for Microbial Control

Biological Methods for Microbial Control

Biological agents offer an effective means of controlling microbial growth by leveraging natural processes like predation, competition, and the secretion of antimicrobial substances.Predatory bacteria such as Bdellovibrio species target and kill pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. They are widely used in poultry farms to control infections. Myxococcus species help combat plant-pathogenic fungi. These naturally occurring predators serve as eco-friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides and...

Plant Breeding and Biotechnology

Plant Breeding and Biotechnology

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.

Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing

Gene Regulation in Microbial Communities: Quorum Sensing

Quorum sensing is a mechanism of bacterial communication that enables coordinated gene expression in response to changes in population density. This facilitates collective behaviors that enhance survival, resource acquisition, and ecological adaptation. This process relies on small signaling molecules called autoinducers that accumulate as bacterial populations grow. When a critical threshold concentration of autoinducers is reached, bacterial cells collectively modify gene expression,...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

RNA synthetic biology: from the test tube to cells and back again.

ACS synthetic biology·2015

Same author

A family of synthetic riboswitches adopts a kinetic trapping mechanism.

Nucleic acids research·2014

Same author

Riboswitches for intracellular study of genes involved in Francisella pathogenesis.

mBio·2012

Same author

A riboswitch-based inducible gene expression system for mycobacteria.

PloS one·2012

Same author

From SELEX to cell dual selections for synthetic riboswitches.

Methods in enzymology·2011

Same author

Synthetic riboswitches that induce gene expression in diverse bacterial species.

Applied and environmental microbiology·2010

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Phage-Mediated Genetic Manipulation of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi

Phage-Mediated Genetic Manipulation of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi

Published on: September 28, 2022

Reprogramming bacteria to seek and destroy an herbicide.

Joy Sinha¹, Samuel J Reyes, Justin P Gallivan

¹Department of Chemistry and Center for Fundamental and Applied Molecular Evolution, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Nature Chemical Biology

|May 11, 2010

Summary

Synthetic biology reprogrammed bacteria using a novel riboswitch. These engineered cells can detect and migrate towards the herbicide atrazine, then destroy it.

More Related Videos

Antimicrobial Peptides Produced by Selective Pressure Incorporation of Non-canonical Amino Acids

Antimicrobial Peptides Produced by Selective Pressure Incorporation of Non-canonical Amino Acids

Published on: May 4, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Phage-Mediated Genetic Manipulation of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi

Phage-Mediated Genetic Manipulation of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi

Published on: September 28, 2022

Antimicrobial Peptides Produced by Selective Pressure Incorporation of Non-canonical Amino Acids

Antimicrobial Peptides Produced by Selective Pressure Incorporation of Non-canonical Amino Acids

Published on: May 4, 2018

Area of Science:

Synthetic biology
Molecular biology
Biotechnology

Background:

Synthetic biology aims to engineer cellular functions for specific tasks.
Controlling cellular behavior in response to external stimuli is a key challenge.
Riboswitches offer a modular genetic control mechanism.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a synthetic riboswitch for detecting the herbicide atrazine.
To engineer bacteria for directed migration in response to atrazine.
To create bacteria capable of seeking and degrading atrazine.

Main Methods:

Employing a combination of in vitro and in vivo selection.
Identifying a novel riboswitch responsive to atrazine.
Reprogramming bacterial cells with the synthetic riboswitch.
Incorporating atrazine catabolic pathway genes into engineered bacteria.

Main Results:

A synthetic riboswitch was rapidly identified that activates protein translation upon atrazine detection.
Engineered bacteria demonstrated directed migration in the presence of atrazine.
The modified bacteria successfully sought and degraded atrazine.

Conclusions:

Synthetic riboswitches can be effectively selected and implemented for cellular control.
Bacterial cells can be reprogrammed for targeted environmental remediation tasks.
This approach offers a powerful platform for developing smart biosystems.