Scientists at the Technion discovered an unknown mechanism in the activity of the living cell: concealment as a means of genetic silencing. In the follow-up study, innovative technologies of DNA printing will be used in order to decipher the "genomic grammar"
Associate Professor Roi Amit, a faculty member in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion, discovered a new concept in cell activity: concealment as a means of genetic silencing. This is reported by the journal Nature Communications. Gene silencing is a biological term that means suppression of the activity of a gene by the cell. The living cell knows how to "turn on" genes in a process called activation, and "turn off" or suppress them in a process called silencing - by the direct activity of a protein.
In a recent study, Prof. Amit discovered that the cell has another way to silence the gene: through physical concealment, that is, through a protein that prevents interaction between the gene and the factor that activates it. According to him, "You can think of the secreting protein as a tall man sitting in front of you in the cinema. Another image is a solar eclipse. In fact, we are talking here about a kind of 'genetic eclipse': certain proteins are located on the DNA segment at a point that hides from the gene the factor that is supposed to activate it, thus effectively silencing that gene."
Prof. Amit's hypothesis was tested in three ways: computer imaging, synthetic biology and bioinformatics. In other words, the model was validated both in simulation and in analysis of actual genetic segments. "We validated this model in experiments we performed on 60 bacterial genetic sequences, and thus established this new concept. Now we understand that this is a mechanism that developed during evolution as an effective channel of action for genetic silencing."
The new concept will be thoroughly and comprehensively tested as part of an extensive study led by Prof. Amit. The research was supported by 4 million euros from the FET Open program, which operates as part of the European Union's "Horizon 2020" program, and supports scientific and technological research that is expected to lead to the development of innovative technologies. The program will be attended by 5 research groups from Israel and Europe who will work to decipher the operating principles of the control code in bacteria, yeast and flies.
"The control code is a kind of programming language through which the genome controls the genetic expression in the aspects of location, timing and intensity," explains Associate Professor Amit. "As part of the research, innovative DNA printing technologies will be used to rewrite the code and test the output of the synthetic programs inside living cells. By writing tens of thousands of synthetic control sequences, the researchers hope to decipher the grammar principles of the genome's programming language."
