0000000000296942
AUTHOR
Teresa Cordero
Disrupted PGR-B and ESR1 signaling underlies preconceptional defective decidualization linked to severe preeclampsia
AbstractDecidualization of the uterine mucosa drives the maternal adaptation to invasion by the placenta. Appropriate depth of placental invasion is needed to support a healthy pregnancy; shallow invasion is associated with the development of severe preeclampsia (sPE). Maternal contribution to sPE through failed decidualization is an important determinant of placental phenotype. However, the molecular mechanism underlaying the in vivo defect linking decidualization to sPE is unknown. Here, we discover the footprint encoding this decidualization defect comprising of 166 genes using global gene expression profiling in decidua from women who developed sPE in a previous pregnancy. This signatur…
Engineering a Circular Riboregulator in Escherichia coli
RNAs of different shapes and sizes, natural or synthetic, can regulate gene expression in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Circular RNAs have recently appeared to be more widespread than previously thought, but their role in prokaryotes remains elusive. Here, by inserting a riboregulatory sequence within a group I permuted intron-exon ribozyme, we created a small noncoding RNA that self-splices to produce a circular riboregulator in Escherichia coli . We showed that the resulting riboregulator can trans -activate gene expression by interacting with a cis -repressed messenger RNA. We characterized the system with a fluorescent reporter and with an antibiotic resistance marker, and we modeled thi…
Boolean computation in plants using post-translational genetic control and a visual output signal
[EN] Due to autotrophic growing capacity and extremely rich secondary metabolism, plants should be preferred targets of synthetic biology. However, developments in plants usually run below those in other taxonomic groups. In this work we engineered genetic circuits capable of logic YES, OR and AND Boolean computation in plant tissues with a visual output signal. The circuits, which are deployed by means of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, perform with the conditional activity of the MYB transcription factor Roseal from Antirrhinum majus inducing the accumulation of anthocyanins, plant endogenous pigments that are directly visible to the naked eye or accurately quantifiable by spectrophotometric a…