RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A rhamnose-inducible system for precise and temporal control of gene expression in cyanobacteria JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 227355 DO 10.1101/227355 A1 Kelly, Ciarán L. A1 Hitchcock, Andrew A1 Torres-Méndez, Antonio A1 Heap, John T. YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/30/227355.abstract AB Cyanobacteria are important for fundamental studies of photosynthesis and have great biotechnological potential. In order to better study and fully exploit these organisms, the limited repertoire of genetic tools and parts must be expanded. A small number of inducible promoters have been used in cyanobacteria, allowing dynamic external control of gene expression through the addition of specific inducer molecules. However, the inducible promoters used to date suffer from various drawbacks including toxicity of inducers, leaky expression in the absence of inducer and inducer photolability, the latter being particularly relevant to cyanobacteria which, as photoautotrophs, are grown under light. Here we introduce the rhamnose-inducible rhaBAD promoter of Escherichia coli into the model freshwater cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and demonstrate it has superior properties to previously reported cyanobacterial inducible promoter systems, such as a non-toxic, photostable, non-metabolizable inducer, a linear response to inducer concentration and crucially no basal transcription in the absence of inducer.