MIT engineers bacteria to function as living transistors for programmable plant sensors
MIT scientists have transformed Pantoea agglomerans bacteria into transistor-like components that can be printed into living circuits capable of simple calculations.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineered the surface-dwelling bacterium Pantoea agglomerans to act as transistor analogues, producing or suppressing a signaling molecule called OHC 14 in response to inputs OC 6 and OC 12. Three additional engineered strains convert OHC 14 into new inputs, allowing the cells to be wired together like electronic components. Printed colonies spaced roughly 5 mm apart on agar enable directional signal flow, and the system has been used to build basic logic gates, multi-input operations, and a 24-colony circuit that adds two signals.
Calculations take about eight hours, a timescale suitable for agricultural applications such as detecting drought or pest threats and activating protective measures. The work, funded in part by DARPA and IARPA, appears in Nature Chemical Biology and is led by postdoc Hamid Doosthosseini with senior author Christopher Voigt.
Why it matters
It shows how biology can be programmed to sense and respond to environmental cues, opening new routes for sustainable agriculture.
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