A logical way to reprogram plants

Abstract

Living cells constantly monitor their external and internal environments for changing conditions, stresses or developmental cues. Networks of genetically encoded components sense and process these signals following pre-defined rules in such a way that specific combinations of the presence or absence of certain signals activate suitable responses. Many biological signal integration mechanisms approximate Boolean logic operations, whereby presence or absence of signals are computed as variables with values described as either true or false, respectively. Boolean logic gates are commonly used in algebra and in computer sciences, and have long been recognized as useful information processing devices in electronic circuits. In these circuits, logic gates integrate multiple input values and produce an output signal according to pre-defined Boolean logic operations. Recent implementation of these logic operations using genetic components to process information in living cells has allowed genetic circuits to enable novel traits with decision-making capabilities. Although several literature reports describe the design and use of these logic gates to introduce new functions in bacterial, yeast and mammalian cells, similar approaches in plants remain scarce, likely due to challenges posed by the complexity of plants and the lack of some technological advances, e.g., species-independent genetic transformation. In this mini review, we have surveyed recent reports describing synthetic genetic Boolean logic operators in plants and the different gate architectures used. We also briefly discuss the potential of deploying these genetic devices in plants to bring to fruition a new generation of resilient crops and improved biomanufacturing platforms.

Keywords: Boolean logic; Genetic circuits; Information processing; Plant synthetic biology; Signal integration.