Self-feedback loop-containing synthetic mRNA switches for controlled microRNA sensing

Abstract

Synthetic mRNA switches are powerful cell fate manipulation tools that sense cellular input molecules to directly control protein expression at the translational level. The lack of available switch designs that can mimic the natural sophisticated protein regulation is a fundamental issue that limits the application of synthetic mRNA switches. Here we report a new set of synthetic mRNA switches by incorporating self-feedback loop machineries to dynamically control protein expression levels upon sensing cellular microRNAs. We redesigned the coding region of the switch to express output protein along with mRNA regulatory proteins. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and RBP-binding RNA motifs (aptamers) guide the regulatory proteins to act on their own mRNAs, enhancing or flattening the effect of microRNA sensing. Importantly, we demonstrated that the switches with the positive feedback feature can enlarge a high-or-low microRNA effect into a nearly all-or-none pattern, substantially boosting the use of synthetic mRNA switches as high-performance microRNA sensors or binary cell regulation tools. We believe these novel mRNA switch designs provide new strategies to construct complex mRNA-based genetic circuits for future molecular sensing and cell engineering.