Team:KU Leuven/Project/StickerSystem

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iGem

Secret garden

Congratulations! You've found our secret garden! Follow the instructions below and win a great prize at the World jamboree!


  • A video shows that two of our team members are having great fun at our favourite company. Do you know the name of the second member that appears in the video?
  • For one of our models we had to do very extensive computations. To prevent our own computers from overheating and to keep the temperature in our iGEM room at a normal level, we used a supercomputer. Which centre maintains this supercomputer? (Dutch abbreviation)
  • We organised a symposium with a debate, some seminars and 2 iGEM project presentations. An iGEM team came all the way from the Netherlands to present their project. What is the name of their city?

Now put all of these in this URL:https://2013.igem.org/Team:KU_Leuven/(firstname)(abbreviation)(city), (loose the brackets and put everything in lowercase) and follow the very last instruction to get your special jamboree prize!

tree ladybugcartoon

Aphid Background

Crashcourse in aphid biology

Honeydew System

Our BanAphids react to honeydew

Sticker System

You are here!

E. coligy

Validating the BanAphids in vivo

Parts

BioBrick 'm all!

Data Page

All our achievements on one small page!

Our initial system for the production of methyl salicylate and β-farnesene relied on direct interaction between the bacteria and the aphids, our BanAphids would be sprayed on the plant. This is ethically and practically challenging since our BanAphids could end up in the environment. We therefore designed an alternative pheromone production system, where the bacteria are kept in semi-permeable pouches. These allow the pheromones to disperse in the air yet the bacteria themselves remain in the bags. Consequently, the presence of aphids secreting honeydew cannot be used as a trigger for the production of both pheromones. Since constitutive production of β-farnesene rapidly renders aphids insensitive, concentrations should fluctuate to prevent habituation. This is typically achieved in an oscillator. The oscillator is extensively elaborated in the oscillator model section. Here we will mainly focus on the design of a β-farnesene oscillator, a part of it will be actually made in the lab. The production of methyl salicylate can be regulated similarly.

Aim

In this part we explain the necessity of the sticker system, as well as its practical execution, such as the properties of the sticker and the implementation of an oscillator.

Oscillator

A part of the oscillator was implemented in the wetlab. You can find the genes we chose for our oscillator here, as well as the results of the wetlab experiments.