Designer biofilms: Controlling biofilm formation and dispersal using a synthetic quorum sensing circuit in microfluidic devices
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Biofilms are bacterial communities that are associated with infections and biofouling. Hence, it is important to control biofilm formation. We proposed to manipulate biofilm formation using tools of synthetic biology and protein engineering. Previously, we engineered two Escherichia coli proteins that promote dispersal of mono-species biofilms. The global regulator Hha was engineered to cause cell death [1] and BdcA was engineered to reduce concentrations of the second messenger 3,5-cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) [2]. Here, we constructed a synthetic biofilm circuit that utilizes the Hha and BdcA dispersal proteins along with a quorum sensing (QS) switch that works based on the accumulation of the signal N-(3-oxo-dodecanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone (3-o-C12HSL) and implemented it in a microfluidic biofilm engineering (BE) device.