Team:UNITN-Trento/Safety
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<center><img class="path" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/b/bb/Tn-2013-project_ethylene-Plants_path.jpg"/></center> | <center><img class="path" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/b/bb/Tn-2013-project_ethylene-Plants_path.jpg"/></center> | ||
<p> | <p> | ||
- | An unwanted byproduct is produced in the last step of ethylene synthesis: cyanide, an highly toxic compound that inhibits the cychrome C oxydase enzyme. Plants however have a complex detoxyfication mechanism. < | + | An unwanted byproduct is produced in the last step of ethylene synthesis: cyanide, an highly toxic compound that inhibits the cychrome C oxydase enzyme. Plants however have a complex detoxyfication mechanism. </p> |
+ | <center><h3>That's why we don't die when we eat a fruit!</h3></center> | ||
- | + | <img title="This is the exception that proves the rule. Bruno in fact is allergic to almost all fruit and would die in any case!!!" id="brunoide" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/5a/Tn-2013-bruno_face_2.jpg" /></center> | |
<p style="display:inline-block; width:49%;"> | <p style="display:inline-block; width:49%;"> | ||
We immediately though this detoxification path was too complicate to be insered into a microrganism. This due for example that plants enzymes often have diffent | We immediately though this detoxification path was too complicate to be insered into a microrganism. This due for example that plants enzymes often have diffent |
Revision as of 10:02, 24 September 2013
Safety
When we decide to engineer a biological system able to produce ethylene and methyl-salycilate, we looked at all the existing natural pathways. For ethylene we firstly checked the plants producing pathway.
An unwanted byproduct is produced in the last step of ethylene synthesis: cyanide, an highly toxic compound that inhibits the cychrome C oxydase enzyme. Plants however have a complex detoxyfication mechanism.
That's why we don't die when we eat a fruit!
We immediately though this detoxification path was too complicate to be insered into a microrganism. This due for example that plants enzymes often have diffent glycosilisation pattern that bacteria can not produce. A wrong glycosilation pattern can affect protein folding and activity. In order to avoid these problems, we quitted this path and focused on a more interesting one. Pseudomonas Syrigae pv., a plant pathogen bacteria, is able to produce ethylene explointing only one enzyme. 2-Oxoglutarate Oxygenase/Decarboxylase enzyme takes 2-Oxoglutarate as substrate and transforms it into ethylene + water + carbon-dioxyde. Goto M. Plant and Cell Physiology (2012) 26, 141-150.