Team:Manaus Amazonas-Brazil/Background

From 2013.igem.org





Background




The main focus of the project is generate electric energy through degradation of fatty acid present in waste frying oil, which are widely used and discarded by restaurants, when these oils are disposed improperly they present as a pollutant to the environment, so the treatment to eliminate these pollutants requires the use of toxic chemicals products, besides that the process is costly and inefficient. There are alternatives to the use of frying oils as the production of soap, but the directing of fats for energy generation will bring a new option for bioenergy through bioremediation. The bacteria Shewanella putrefaciens that we pretend to use is capable to do electron`s transport disposed in the media, generating electricity. The proposal is to improve it genetically to degrade these oils through β-oxidation (biochemical reaction that break of fatty acids), increasing the production of electrons. The genus Shewanella is a group of bacteria recently discovered and the studies on them are scarce, especially in the area of molecular biology, but have the potencial not only for energy generation possibility but also for the ability of capture metals arranged in the ambient. Among the possibilities to modify it, we chose two ways: knockout the repressor (FadR) of beta oxidation pathway and overexpression two important proteins (FadD and FadL) to beta oxidation pathway.The effects of these modification gene should be studied to not generate a stress condition. With this environmental and ecological project design, we are excited, determined to participate in iGEM and be the first team to represent the state of Amazonas.