About This Project

Chemical-induced promoters or "Gene Switches" allow expressing a gene of interest in a controllable manner in the presence of a particular chemical compound. Copper sulfate is a very convenient choice of inducer because it is readily absorbed by plants, is easy to find, and is safe to use compared to hormone based alternatives. In this experiment, I will develop a copper based gene switch and use it to control In-Vitro shoot regeneration, flowering time, and Green Fluorescent Protein expression.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Living organisms have evolved mechanisms that allow them to adapt to a changing environment, among them, the ability to turn genes on and off in response to the presence or absence of certain chemicals. Some bacteria activate arabinose metabolism genes when arabinose is present and glucose is absent in the environment. Similarly, some yeasts activate copper detoxification genes when an excess amount of copper is present in the cell. Scientists can harness the mechanisms by which these genes are regulated, and use it to control the expression of a gene of choice.

Tight regulation, modulation, and high-level expression by vectors containing the arabinose PBAD promoter - PMC

What is the significance of this project?

Having the ability to express a gene in a controllable manner is highly desirable for research applications. Opposed to constitutive promoters, inducible promoters allow the scientist to express a gene in a specific developmental stage of a plant, for a controlled duration, and a in a controlled concentration. In plants, estrogen based inducible systems are often used, unfortunately this system relies on human hormones which are difficult to come by, expensive, and potentially dangerous to work with. Copper inducible systems allow expressing genes in a controlled manner by using copper sulfate, which is cheap, easy to find, and safe to use.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal of this project is to develop parts and plasmids for copper inducible gene expression in plants. The plasmids will allow cloning a gene of interest, transforming a living plant, and control the expression of the gene by adding copper sulfate. All of our results will be made public, and the plasmids will be open sourced under a Creative Commons license.