Curated Optogenetic Publication Database

Abstract: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) infection has become an intractable problem worldwide due to the decreasing efficacy of the mainstay therapy, antibiotic treatment. Hence, exploring new drugs and therapies to address this issue is crucial. Here, we construct a chimeric pyocin (ChPy) to specifically kill P. aeruginosa and engineer a near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive strain to produce and deliver this drug. Our engineered bacterial strain can continuously produce ChPy in the absence of light and release it to kill P. aeruginosa via remotely and precisely controlled bacterial lysis induced by NIR light. We demonstrate that our engineered bacterial strain is effective in P. aeruginosa-infected wound therapy in the mouse model, as it eradicated PAO1 in mouse wounds and shortened the wound healing time. Our work presents a potentially spatiotemporal and noninvasively controlled therapeutic strategy of engineered bacteria for the targeted treatment of P. aeruginosa infections.

Abstract: Bacteria can be genetically engineered to act as therapeutic delivery vehicles in the treatment of tumors, killing cancer cells or activating the immune system. This is known as bacteria-mediated cancer therapy (BMCT). Tumor invasion, colonization and tumor regression are major biological events, which are directly associated with antitumor effects and are uncontrollable due to the influence of tumor microenvironments during the BMCT process. Here, we developed a genetic circuit for dynamically programming bacterial lifestyles (planktonic, biofilm or lysis), to precisely manipulate the process of bacterial adhesion, colonization and drug release in the BMCT process, via hierarchical modulation of the lighting power density of near-infrared (NIR) light. The deep tissue penetration of NIR offers us a modality for spatio-temporal and non-invasive control of bacterial genetic circuits in vivo. By combining computational modeling with a high-throughput characterization device, we optimized the genetic circuits in engineered bacteria to program the process of bacterial lifestyle transitions by altering the illumination scheme of NIR. Our results showed that programming intratumoral bacterial lifestyle transitions allows precise control of multiple key steps throughout the BMCT process and therapeutic efficacy can be greatly improved by controlling the localization and dosage of therapeutic agents via optimizing the illumination scheme.

Abstract: Single-cell behaviors are essential during early-stage biofilm formation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether single-cell behaviors could be precisely and continuously manipulated by optogenetics. We thus established adaptive tracking illumination (ATI), a novel illumination method to precisely manipulate the gene expression and bacterial behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the surface at the single-cell level by using the combination of a high-throughput bacterial tracking algorithm, optogenetic manipulation, and adaptive microscopy. ATI enables precise gene expression control by manipulating the optogenetic module gene expression and type IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility and microcolony formation during biofilm formation through bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) level modifications in single cells. Moreover, we showed that the spatial organization of single cells in mature biofilms could be controlled using ATI. Therefore, this novel method we established might markedly answer various questions or resolve problems in microbiology. KEY POINTS: • High-resolution spatial and continuous optogenetic control of individual bacteria. • Phenotype-specific optogenetic control of individual bacteria. • Capacity to control biologically relevant processes in engineered single cells.

Abstract: Optogenetic approaches enable light-mediated control of cellular activities using genetically encoded photoreceptors. While optogenetic technology is already well established in neuroscience and fundamental research, the implementation of optogenetic tools in bacteriology is still emerging. Engineered bacteria with the specific optogenetic system that function at the transcriptional or post-translational level can sense and respond to light, allowing optogenetic control of bacterial behaviors. In this review, we give a brief overview of available optogenetic systems, including their mode of action, classification, and engineering strategies, and focus on optogenetic control of bacterial behaviors with the highlight of strategies for use of optogenetic systems.

Abstract: Bacterial pathogens operate by tightly controlling the pathogenicity to facilitate invasion and survival in host. While small molecule inducers can be designed to modulate pathogenicity to perform studies of pathogen-host interaction, these approaches, due to the diffusion property of chemicals, may have unintended, or pleiotropic effects that can impose limitations on their use. By contrast, light provides superior spatial and temporal resolution. Here, using optogenetics we reengineered GacS of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, signal transduction protein of the global regulatory Gac/Rsm cascade which is of central importance for the regulation of infection factors. The resultant protein (termed YGS24) displayed significant light-dependent activity of GacS kinases in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. When introduced in the Caenorhabditis elegans host systems, YGS24 stimulated the pathogenicity of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 in a brain-heart infusion and of another strain, PA14, in slow killing media progressively upon blue-light exposure. This optogenetic system provides an accessible way to spatiotemporally control bacterial pathogenicity in defined hosts, even specific tissues, to develop new pathogenesis systems, which may in turn expedite development of innovative therapeutics.

Abstract: Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is an important secondary messenger that controls carbon metabolism, type IVa pili biogenesis, and virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Precise manipulation of bacterial intracellular cAMP levels may enable tunable control of twitching motility or virulence, and optogenetic tools are attractive because they afford excellent spatiotemporal resolution and are easy to operate. Here, we developed an engineered P. aeruginosa strain (termed pactm) with light-dependent intracellular cAMP levels through introducing a photoactivated adenylate cyclase gene (bPAC) into bacteria. On blue light illumination, pactm displayed a 15-fold increase in the expression of the cAMP responsive promoter and an 8-fold increase in its twitching activity. The skin lesion area of nude mouse in a subcutaneous infection model after 2-day pactm inoculation was increased 14-fold by blue light, making pactm suitable for applications in controllable bacterial host infection. In addition, we achieved directional twitching motility of pactm colonies through localized light illumination, which will facilitate the studies of contact-dependent interactions between microbial species.

Abstract: In this paper, we present a new strategy for microprinting dense bacterial communities with a prescribed organization on a substrate. Unlike conventional bioprinting techniques that require bioinks, through optogenetic manipulation, we directly manipulated the behaviors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to allow these living bacteria to autonomically form patterned biofilms following prescribed illumination. The results showed that through optogenetic manipulation, patterned bacterial communities with high spatial resolution (approximately 10 μm) could be constructed in 6 h. Thus, optogenetic manipulation greatly increases the range of available bioprinting techniques.

Abstract: Single-cell behaviors play essential roles during early-stage biofilms formation. In this study, we evaluated whether biofilm formation could be guided by precisely manipulating single cells behaviors. Thus, we established an illumination method to precisely manipulate the type IV pili (TFP) mediated motility and microcolony formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using a combination of a high-throughput bacterial tracking algorithm, optogenetic manipulation and adaptive microscopy. We termed this method as Adaptive Tracking Illumination (ATI). We reported that ATI enables the precise manipulation of TFP mediated motility and microcolony formation during biofilm formation by manipulating bis-(3′-5′)-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) levels in single cells. Moreover, we showed that the spatial organization of single cells in mature biofilms can be controlled using ATI. Thus, the established method (i.e., ATI) can markedly promote ongoing studies of biofilms.

Abstract: Synthetic biologists have attempted to solve real-world problems, such as those of bacterial biofilms, that are involved in the pathogenesis of many clinical infections and difficult to eliminate. To address this, we employed a blue light responding system and integrated it into the chromosomes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. With making rational adaptions and improvements of the light-activated system, we provided a robust and convenient means to spatiotemporally control gene expression and manipulate biological processes with minimal perturbation in P. aeruginosa. It increased the light-induced gene expression up to 20-fold. Moreover, we deliberately introduced a functional protein gene PA2133 containing an EAL domain to degrade c-di-GMP into the modified system, and showed that the optimally engineered optogenetic tool inhibited the formation of P. aeruginosa biofilms through the induction of blue light, resulting in much sparser and thinner biofilms. Our approach establishes a methodology for leveraging the tools of synthetic biology to guide biofilm formation and engineer biofilm patterns with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the synthetic optogenetic system may provide a promising strategy that could be applied to control and fight biofilms.