Reporter gene

Plasmid

Escherichia coli

Biology

Gene

Gene expression

Programming language

Expression vector

Recombinant DNA

Computer science

Computational biology

Expression (computer science)

Genetics

Software portability

ACS Synthetic Biology

The rapid prototyping and optimization of plasmid-based recombinant gene expression is one of the key steps in the development of bioengineered bacterial systems. Often, multiple genes or gene modules need to be coexpressed, and for this purpose compatible, inducible plasmid systems have been developed. However, inducible expression systems are not favored in industrial processes, due to their prohibitive cost, and consequently the conversion to constitutive expression systems is often desired. Here we present a set of constitutive-expression plasmids for this purpose, which were benchmarked using fluorescent reporter genes. To further facilitate the conversion between inducible and constitutive expression systems, we developed SelProm, a design tool that serves as a parts repository of plasmid expression strength and predicts portability rules between constitutive and inducible plasmids through model comparison and machine learning. The SelProm tool is freely available at http://selprom.synbiochem.co.uk.

SelProm: A Queryable and Predictive Expression Vector Selection Tool for <i>Escherichia coli</i>

SelProm: A Queryable and Predictive Expression Vector Selection Tool for Escherichia coli