Team:Braunschweig/Project/Description

From 2013.igem.org

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<h1>Our project - Outline</h1></p>
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<h1>Our project</h1></p>
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<img alt="linie rot 8pix hoch" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/0/07/Team_Braunschweig_Red_line.jpg" width="850" height="1" /></p>  
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In nature microorganisms commonly live in symbiosis, be it in form of a protective biofilm or as composite organism[s] such as lichen (a symbiosis of algae/cyanobacteria and fungi). Members of this symbiotic community secrete chemicals that offer protection and nutrition or neutralize toxins.
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<p style="text-align: justify">In our project, we engineer three different E. coli strains to grow in
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</a>The goal of the iGEM Team Braunschweig is to create a synergetic system similar to a natural symbiosis. During the course of our project we want to clone three individual mutant strains of the bacterium <em>Escherichia coli</em> which can only survive as a community – if one dies, they all die.<br />
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a consortium. The survivability of the bacteria is coupled to a Quorum
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To achieve this, each strain bears a plasmid that confers antibiotic resistance upon activation of a two-component transcription activator.<br />
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Sensing (QS) dependent antibiotic resistance.</p>
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The key feature of our system: only one component can be synthesized by each strain alone. The other half of a transcription activator is produced by another strain and secreted into the medium.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Curious? <a href="http://en.igem-braunschweig.de/project-2/our-project/">Here</a> you can find more details.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify">Each strain maintains a constitutive expression of an inactive
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transcription activator (LuxR, LasR or RhlR). Inducers are synthesized
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by different synthases (LuxI, LasI or RhlI) that are each expressed in
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one strain and subsequently secreted into the medium. Once taken up by
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a cell, the inducers bind to the corresponding, inactive transcription
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factors to render them functional. As a result, the antibiotic
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resistance under the control of an inducible promoter is expressed.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify">To measure the culture composition, we include a strain specific
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chromoprotein as reporter. As an individual strain can only grow if
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the inactive transcription factor is activated, the three strains are
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forced into a symbiotic dependency. If one strain dies, the whole
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consortium dies.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify">The benefit of bacterial consortia for synthetic biology is the
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ability to perform very complex tasks. In applications like wastewater
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treatment, soil remediation or the complicated synthesis of
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biotechnological products, the whole reaction can be split into small
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reactions to share the task among the different strains. Also, a
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self-regulating bacterial culture with intra-consortial dependencies
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offers great advances in biosafety. To shut down the whole bacterial
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consortium, only one strain has to be eliminated.</p>
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Revision as of 12:23, 8 August 2013


Our project

linie rot 8pix hoch

In our project, we engineer three different E. coli strains to grow in a consortium. The survivability of the bacteria is coupled to a Quorum Sensing (QS) dependent antibiotic resistance.

Each strain maintains a constitutive expression of an inactive transcription activator (LuxR, LasR or RhlR). Inducers are synthesized by different synthases (LuxI, LasI or RhlI) that are each expressed in one strain and subsequently secreted into the medium. Once taken up by a cell, the inducers bind to the corresponding, inactive transcription factors to render them functional. As a result, the antibiotic resistance under the control of an inducible promoter is expressed.

To measure the culture composition, we include a strain specific chromoprotein as reporter. As an individual strain can only grow if the inactive transcription factor is activated, the three strains are forced into a symbiotic dependency. If one strain dies, the whole consortium dies.

The benefit of bacterial consortia for synthetic biology is the ability to perform very complex tasks. In applications like wastewater treatment, soil remediation or the complicated synthesis of biotechnological products, the whole reaction can be split into small reactions to share the task among the different strains. Also, a self-regulating bacterial culture with intra-consortial dependencies offers great advances in biosafety. To shut down the whole bacterial consortium, only one strain has to be eliminated.

Our sponsors

linie rot 8pix hoch

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