Active modulation of synthetic microbial signaling pathways using microfluidic chemical interfaces

Abstract

This work presents microfluidic chemical interface systems enabling the active modulation of synthetic microbial signaling pathways by controlling the diffusion and reaction of cell-signaling molecules by directly activating and inactivating gene expression in an initially homogenous population of cells. The strategy is to combine a microfluidic system that acts as a distributed inhibitor system and a synthetic gene circuit that contains a positive feedback loop activated by acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) to form synthetic microbial patterns; the activator molecules are AHL and the inhibitors are hydroxyl ions.