Transcription Factors as Evolvable Biosensors

Abstract

One of the most prominent features of genetically encoded biosensors (GEBs) is their evolvability—the ability to invent new sensory functions using mutations. Among the GEBs, the transcription factor-based biosensors (TF-biosensors) is the focus of this review. We also discuss how this class of sensors can be highly evolvable and how we can exploit it. With an established platform for directed evolution, researchers can create, or evolve, new TF-biosensors. Directed evolution experiments have revealed the TF-biosensors’ evolvability, which is based partially on their characteristic physicochemical properties.