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| - | <i>Lactobacillus</i> is one of the major groups of bacteria used in yogurt
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| - | production. Our iGEM project explores the ways in which we could
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| - | engineer <i>Lactobacillus</i> to improve yogurt. First, we are examining the
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| - | problem of viral infections, which can cause batches of yogurt to fail.
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| - | Considerable efforts, including sterilization strategies and culture rotation
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| - | schedules, are used to reduce plant downtime caused by these phages.
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| - | By incorporating CRISP-R bacterial immunity into <i>Lactobacillus</i>,
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| - | specifically targeting it to prevent infection from common dairy phages,
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| - | we are attempting to “vaccinate” yogurt fermenters against viral
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| - | collapse.
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| - | Second, we are trying to avoid the cost of adding flavour to yogurt
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| - | after fermentation by engineering the bacteria to produce these
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| - | compounds themselves. This would also lessen our
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| - | reliance on food additives derived from petrochemicals, thereby
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| - | making fermented dairy products greener. We plan on engineering
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| - | metabolic pathways which will flavour our yogurt with vanilla and
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| - | cinnamon by producing vanillin and cinnamaldehyde, respectively. We are
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| - | also working to construct a caffeine synthesis pathway to see if food
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| - | products can be “naturally” caffeinated by bacteria. We are currently
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| - | implementing the CRISP-R immune system and flavour production
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| - | pathways in <i>E. coli</i> as a proof of concept.
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| - | Finally, as dairy probiotics are widely accepted as not only being
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| - | safe, but beneficial, they provide an interesting system to explore
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| - | the controversial issue of genetically modified organisms in food.
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| - | We’re working with locals from business, marketing, philosophy,
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| - | psychology and land and food systems to see if we can better
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| - | understand how a variety of people approach the issue.
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