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Host engineering

Generating single cell factories

Introduction

Synthetic biology doesn’t stop at the level of molecular systems. To expand the scope of this project we have chosen for a multi-level approach, in which we are working on biobricks, proteins, a pathway and also our host. In order to achieve the latter two strategies have been conceived of. In the first we have chosen to harness the power of directed evolution, a powerful tool that not often used in this competition. An explanation for this might lie in the fact that this approach is only semi-rational at best, however we like to argue that this does not make it any less of a powerful mechanism, and neither within the field of synthetic biology. Nonetheless, in order to explore new territories we have chosen for a second, fully rational approach in which we analyze the transcriptome of two distinct phenotypes; the mycelial and the single cell.

A scientific paper from 1971

Anderson, J. G. and J. E. Smith (1972). "Effects of Elevated-Temperatures on Spore Swelling and Germination in Aspergillus Niger." Canadian Journal of Microbiology 18 (3): 289-297. Anderson and Smith found that at 44C germ-tube formation was completely inhibited in Aspergillus niger, although spherical growth could occur over a prolonged period to produce large spherical cells. More generally, there are more dimorphic fungi that display such a distinctive phenotypic transition at elevated temperatures. This made us ponder and let to the idea of generating a single cellular phenotype.

Abstract

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