Team:Greensboro-Austin

From 2013.igem.org

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(Project PopeyE.coli)
(Project SmellE coli)
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The degradation of malodorous compounds like p-cresol has really raised a '''big stink''' here at UT Austin. For years, the livestock industry has sought a cost-effective solution to decreasing odor emissions, which is primarily caused by the compound p-cresol. To remedy this, UT iGEM is using engineered E. Coli to degrade p-cresol down to Acetyl-CoA and pyruvate, two potential carbon sources for our bacteria to use for growth. Using directed evolution, strains with a high efficiency of degradation and the ability to use p-cresol as their sole carbon source could be isolated. Ultimately, this strain could be potentially be used in probiotics for livestock and pets for odor reduction.  
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UT’s ZombiE.coli project aims to a develop a tightly regulated genetic switch that is triggered by bacterial quorum signaling and leads to feed-forward propagation of the genetic output in the form of red or green fluorescence as well as amplification of quorum signaling. The switch relies on simple one-way Cre/loxP recombination combined with native quorum signaling to provide us with a system that models transmissible disease spread between populations. We have likened this to an airborne zombie epidemic, in which an “infected” zombie cell is capable of restructuring the genes of a normal cell, turning it into a flesh-hungry counterpart. This system will be useful not only as a simple disease outbreak model for intermediate-level biology education, but also, could provide new insights to how bacterial populations communicate in three dimensions and under different genetic backgrounds.  
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Revision as of 17:56, 7 June 2013


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Project GluE coli

Mussel Adhesion Protein


Taking advantage of muscle adhesive proteins (MAPs) really stuck on to this year’s UT iGEM team. Muscle adhesive proteins have amassed much attention as a potential adhesive for biomedical, underwater and other commercially relevant applications. Furthermore, muscle adhesive proteins are sought for their biodegradability, biocompatibility and ability to adhere to various substrates. However, production of muscle adhesive proteins proves to be an arduous task. Extraction-based production and in-vitro-based production are expensive, inefficient, and unsustainable. Thus, our team focused on improving the efficiency of in vivo production of MAPs utilizing fusion protein fp-151. MAPs derive their adhesive properties from the hydroxylation of tyrosine to L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) then to dopaquinone. This project reprogrammed the stop codon to incorporate an unnatural amino acid L-DOPA. In turn, this technique provides tighter control of L-DOPA incorporation whereas previous in vivo projects, depending on posttranslational modification, contained a lesser yield of L-DOPA. Our team aims to develop the technology for large-scale MAP production in E. coli that will ultimately allow for rapid, cost-effective, and commercially viable production of an adhesive for biomedical applications.

Project SmellE coli

pcresol

The degradation of malodorous compounds like p-cresol has really raised a big stink here at UT Austin. For years, the livestock industry has sought a cost-effective solution to decreasing odor emissions, which is primarily caused by the compound p-cresol. To remedy this, UT iGEM is using engineered E. Coli to degrade p-cresol down to Acetyl-CoA and pyruvate, two potential carbon sources for our bacteria to use for growth. Using directed evolution, strains with a high efficiency of degradation and the ability to use p-cresol as their sole carbon source could be isolated. Ultimately, this strain could be potentially be used in probiotics for livestock and pets for odor reduction.











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