Genetic code expansion lets engineers restrict bacterial activity to target plants in Nature Biotech
anshulkundaje · x · 2026-10-20
A Stanford–Delaware collaboration led by Jennifer Brophy and Aditya Kunjapur published an open-access paper in Nature Biotechnology on plant-directed control of engineered microbes.
- Using O-methyl-L-tyrosine (OMY) as a model compound, they used genetic code expansion to make protein synthesis in Bacillus subtilis dependent on a noncanonical amino acid
- Engineered strains express an orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair, limiting engineered microbial functions to specific target plant hosts
- The approach provides programmable, host-specific control for field-deployed growth-promoting bacteria
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