Synthetic Gene Networks in Plant Systems

Synthetic biology methods are routinely applied in the plant field as in other eukaryotic model systems. Several synthetic components have been developed in plants and an increasing number of studies report on the assembly into functional synthetic genetic circuits. This chapter gives an overview of the existing plant genetic networks and describes in detail the application of two systems for inducible gene expression. The ethanol-inducible system relies on the ethanol-responsive interaction of the AlcA transcriptional activator and the AlcR receptor resulting in the transcription of the gene of interest (GOI). In comparison, the translational fusion of GOI and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) domain leads to the dexamethasone-dependent nuclear translocation of the GOI::GR protein. This chapter contains detailed protocols for the application of both systems in the model plants potato and Arabidopsis , respectively.