Colorado State University scientists have created an integrated circuit for plants that are similar to those found in an iPhone. 'Gene circuits,' a product of synthetic biology, control specific plant characteristics such as color, size, and resistance to drought. While traditional plant genetic engineering involves inserting or modifying genes that control certain characteristics, plant synthetic biologists are taking a different approach by quantitatively analyzing gene parts to make predictable functions.

The scientists invented a method of characterizing not one or two, but hundreds of genetic circuits at a time that control plant functions. They created a blueprint for part construction – the cell parts that make up the eventual circuits and used protoplasts for the testing. Protoplasts are delicate, though, so the engineers used mathematical modeling that accounted for all the special properties of each protoplast. Carrying out intensive data analysis and simulations led them to isolate properties of single protoplasts.

For more details, read the news release from Colorado State University.

Figure: A sensor protein was computationally designed and linked to gene components to enable a plant, Nicotiana tabacum, to display a loss of chlorophyll. Credit: M.S. Antunes et al., PLOS ONE