{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,31]],"date-time":"2026-10-31T19:27:38Z","timestamp":1793474858116,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"American Chemical Society (ACS)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]],"date-time":"2021-01-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1611273600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/page\/policy\/authorchoice_ccbyncnd_termsofuse.html"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002920","name":"Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["16301817"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16301817"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002920","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002920","name":"Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["16306218"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16306218"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002920","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,19]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Detection of environmental pollutants is crucial to safeguard ecological and public health. Here, we report a modular biosensing approach for the detection of contaminants based on the regulation of a minimal DNA signal amplifier and transducer circuit by allosteric transcription factors and their cognate ligands. We leverage the competition between allosteric proteins and an endonuclease to modulate cascade toehold-mediated strand displacement reactions, which are triggered in the presence of specific effectors and sustained by the endonuclease. We built two optical biosensors for the detection of tetracyclines and macrolides in water using repressors TetR and MphR, respectively. We demonstrate that our minimal, fast, and single-step biosensors can successfully detect antibiotics in nanomolar levels and apply them to report the presence of spiked-in antibiotics in water samples in a matter of minutes, suggesting great potential for monitoring of water contaminants.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1021\/acssynbio.0c00545","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]],"date-time":"2021-01-22T22:20:26Z","timestamp":1611354026000},"page":"371-378","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["Allosteric Regulation of DNA Circuits Enables Minimal\nand Rapid Biosensors of Small Molecules"],"prefix":"10.1021","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1424-1246","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Alan F.","family":"Rodri\u0301guez-Serrano","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , , Clear Water Bay , ,","place":["Kowloon, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3326-3021","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"I-Ming","family":"Hsing","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , , Clear Water Bay , ,","place":["Kowloon, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"316","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1596\/978-1-4648-1459-4","article-title":"Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis","volume-title":"Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis","author":"Damania","year":"2019"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"180603","DOI":"10.5696\/2156-9614-8.18.30","article-title":"Phthalate and metal concentrations in drinking water\nin Lagos, Nigeria","volume":"8","author":"Dada","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Heal. Pollut."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1007\/s10653-012-9476-9","article-title":"Concentration of arsenic in water, sediments and fish\nspecies from naturally contaminated rivers","volume":"35","author":"Rosso","year":"2013","journal-title":"Environ. Geochem. Health"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"479","DOI":"10.1002\/clen.201300989","article-title":"Antibiotic Pollution in the Environment:\nA Review","volume":"43","author":"Gothwal","year":"2015","journal-title":"Clean: Soil, Air, Water"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1202954","DOI":"10.1155\/2016\/1202954","article-title":"A Confirmatory\nMethod\nBased on HPLC-MS\/MS for the Detection and Quantification of Residue\nof Tetracyclines in Nonmedicated Feed","volume":"2016","author":"Gavila\u0301n","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Anal.\nMethods Chem."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"246","DOI":"10.1016\/j.copbio.2007.03.005","article-title":"Mass spectrometry\nfor monitoring micropollutants in water","volume":"18","author":"Rosen","year":"2007","journal-title":"Curr.\nOpin. Biotechnol."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"18","DOI":"10.1038\/s41545-020-0064-8","article-title":"A primer\non emerging\nfield-deployable synthetic biology tools for global water quality\nmonitoring","volume":"3","author":"Thavarajah","year":"2020","journal-title":"npj Clean Water"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.3389\/fchem.2020.00434","article-title":"Aptamer-Based Biosensors\nfor Environmental\nMonitoring","volume":"8","author":"McConnell","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Chem."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2918","DOI":"10.3390\/s17122918","article-title":"Recent\nprogress in biosensors for\nenvironmental monitoring: A review","volume":"17","author":"Justino","year":"2017","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"648","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2015.00648","article-title":"Transcription\nfactor-based biosensors enlightened by the analyte","volume":"6","author":"Fernandez-Lo\u0301pez","year":"2015","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"671","DOI":"10.1021\/acssynbio.9b00388","article-title":"Design\nand Optimization of a Cell-Free Atrazine Biosensor","volume":"9","author":"Silverman","year":"2020","journal-title":"ACS Synth. Biol."},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.3696","article-title":"Engineering\nan allosteric transcription factor to respond to new ligands","volume":"13","author":"Taylor","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"2026090116361275600_cit13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"440","DOI":"10.1128\/MMBR.00018-13","article-title":"The TetR Family of Regulators","volume":"77","author":"Cuthbertson","year":"2013","journal-title":"Microbiol. Mol. Biol. 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Acta, Part\nA"}],"container-title":["ACS Synthetic Biology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1021\/acssynbio.0c00545","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"unspecified"},{"URL":"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/asbcd6\/article-pdf\/10\/2\/371\/67520630\/acssynbio.0c00545.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/asbcd6\/article-pdf\/10\/2\/371\/67520630\/acssynbio.0c00545.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T20:36:18Z","timestamp":1788294978000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/asbcd6\/article\/10\/2\/371\/576166\/Allosteric-Regulation-of-DNA-Circuits-Enables"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]]},"references-count":38,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,19]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/acssynbio.0c00545","relation":{},"ISSN":["2161-5063"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2161-5063","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,22]]}}}