Development of a novel uric-acid-responsive regulatory system in Escherichia coli

A novel uric-acid-responsive regulatory system was developed in Escherichia coli by adapting the HucR-related regulatory elements from Deinococcus radiodurans into E. coli . The induction performance of this system was compared to the performance of both the pBAD and pET systems. Our novel regulatory system was induced in a dose-dependent manner in the presence of uric acid and exhibited low basal expression in its absence. The system was characterized by a wide dynamic range of induction, being compatible with various E. coli strains and not requiring genomic modifications of the bacterial host. E. coli DH5α and DH10B were the most suitable host strains for optimal performance of this system. In conclusion, we developed a regulatory system with potential for applications in both recombinant protein expression and metabolic optimization.