This paper describes a bacterial tape recorder. E.coli engineered to be a bacterial tape recorder by allowing it change its genome in response to chemical signals. This is one of these mind-blowing papers that the Lu’s lab is known for. It’s a very nice combination of biology with engineering. This may be a way of using the microbiome to log biological events that will put our iDevices to shame. I am not sure how practical this may be but it is still a very nice idea. From a modeling perspective, it’s interesting because if the E.coli genome is a program, this is a program that can rewrite itself based on external events.
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