Chen, YeKim, Jae KyoungHirning, Andrew J.Josić, KrešimirBennett, Matthew R.2016-06-222016-06-222015Chen, Ye, Kim, Jae Kyoung, Hirning, Andrew J., et al.. "Emergent genetic oscillations in a synthetic microbial consortium." <i>Science,</i> 349, no. 6251 (2015) American Association for the Advancement of Science: 986-989. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa3794.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/90534A challenge of synthetic biology is the creation of cooperative microbial systems that exhibit population-level behaviors. Such systems use cellular signaling mechanisms to regulate gene expression across multiple cell types. We describe the construction of a synthetic microbial consortium consisting of two distinct cell types—an "activator" strain and a "repressor" strain. These strains produced two orthogonal cell-signaling molecules that regulate gene expression within a synthetic circuit spanning both strains. The two strains generated emergent, population-level oscillations only when cultured together. Certain network topologies of the two-strain circuit were better at maintaining robust oscillations than others. The ability to program population-level dynamics through the genetic engineering of multiple cooperative strains points the way toward engineering complex synthetic tissues and organs with multiple cell types.engThis is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by the ﾠAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.Journal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa3794