Phage-based biosensors: in vivo analysis of native T4 phage promoters to enhance reporter enzyme expression.

Phage-based biosensors have shown significant promise in meeting the present needs of the food and agricultural industries due to a combination of sufficient portability, speed, ease of use, sensitivity, and low production cost. Although current phage-based methods do not meet the bacteria detection limit imposed by the EPA, FDA, and USDA, a better understanding of phage genetics can significantly increase their sensitivity as biosensors. In the current study, the signal sensitivity of a T4 phage-based detection system was improved via transcriptional upregulation of the reporter enzyme Nanoluc luciferase (Nluc). An efficient platform to evaluate the promoter activity of reporter T4 phages was developed. The ability to upregulate Nluc within T4 phages was evaluated using 15 native T4 promoters. Data indicates a six-fold increase in reporter enzyme signal from integration of the selected promoters. Collectively, this work demonstrates that fine tuning the expression of reporter enzymes such as Nluc through optimization of transcription can significantly reduce the limits of detection.

4-Bromo-N-(4-bromo-phen-yl)aniline.

In the title compound, C(12)H(9)Br(2)N, the dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 47.32 (5)°, whereas the pitch angles, or the angles between the mean plane of each aryl group 'propeller blade' and the plane defined by the aryl bridging C-N-C angle, are 18.1 (2) and 31.7 (2)°. No inter-molecular N-H hydrogen bonding is present in the crystal; however, there is a short inter-molecular Br⋯Br contact of 3.568 (1) Å.

Optimization of T4 phage engineering via CRISPR/Cas9.

A major limitation hindering the widespread use of synthetic phages in medical and industrial settings is the lack of an efficient phage-engineering platform. Classical T4 phage engineering and several newly proposed methods are often inefficient and time consuming and consequently, only able to produce an inconsistent range of genomic editing rates between 0.03-3%. Here, we review and present new understandings of the CRISPR/Cas9 assisted genome engineering technique that significantly improves the genomic editing rate of T4 phages. Our results indicate that crRNAs selection is a major rate limiting factor in T4 phage engineering via CRISPR/Cas9. We were able to achieve an editing rate of > 99% for multiple genes that functionalizes the phages for further applications. We envision that this improved phage-engineering platform will accelerate the fields of individualized phage therapy, biocontrol, and rapid diagnostics.

Engineering Biorthogonal Phage-Based Nanobots for Ultrasensitive, In Situ Bacteria Detection.

Advances in synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering are allowing parallel advances in areas such as drug delivery and rapid diagnostics. Although our current visions of nanobots may be far off, a generation of nanobots synthesized by engineering viruses is approaching. Such tools can be used to solve complex problems where current methods do not meet current demands. Assuring safe drinking water is crucial for minimizing the spread of waterborne illnesses. Although extremely low levels of fecal contamination in drinking water are sufficient to cause a public health risk, it remains challenging to rapidly detect Escherichia coli, the standard fecal indicator organism. Current methods sensitive enough to meet regulatory standards suffer from either prohibitively long incubation times or requirement of expensive, impractical equipment. Bacteriophages, tuned by billions of years of evolution to bind viable bacteria and readily engineered to produce custom proteins, are uniquely suited to bacterial detection. We have developed a biosensor platform based on magnetized phages encoding luminescent reporter enzymes. This system utilizes bio-orthogonally functionalized phages to enable site-specific conjugation to magnetic nanoparticles. The resulting phage-based nanobots, when combined with standard, portable field equipment, allow for detection of <10 cfu/100 mL of viable E. coli within 7 h, faster than any methods published to date.