Regulated Expression Systems for Mycobacteria and Their Applications.

For bacterial model organisms like and genetic tools to experimentally manipulate the activity of individual genes existed for decades. But for genetically less tractable yet medically important bacteria such as such tools have rarely been available. More recently several groups developed genetic switches that function efficiently in and other mycobacteria. Together these systems utilize six different transcription factors, eight different regulated promoters, and three different regulatory principles. Here we describe their design features, review their main applications, and discuss advantages and disadvantages of regulating transcription, translation, or protein stability for controlling gene activities in bacteria.