Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Introduction
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- | < | + | <span class="tn-title">Introduction</span> |
- | + | <span class="tn-quote"> | |
- | + | Have you ever thrown away some bananas because they were too ripe?<br> | |
- | <span class="quote"> | + | Are you one of many that hates waiting ages to eat the immature kiwis that you find at the supermarket?<br> |
- | Have you ever thrown away some bananas because they were too ripe?<br | + | Do you know how bananas and other fruits are picked unripe from the tree and arrive to the supermarket ready to be sold and eaten?<br> |
- | Are you one of many that hates waiting ages to eat the immature kiwis that you find at the supermarket?<br | + | |
- | Do you know how bananas and other fruits are picked unripe from the tree and arrive to the supermarket ready to be sold and eaten?<br | + | |
Have you ever thought about how much fruit is wasted in restaurants, markets, and industry? | Have you ever thought about how much fruit is wasted in restaurants, markets, and industry? | ||
</span> | </span> | ||
- | + | <p> | |
- | <p>We have decided to solve both these problems by designing and engineering a bacterial system able to control fruit's ripening in response to different stimuli: <i>B. fruity</i>.</p> | + | We have decided to solve both these problems by designing and engineering a bacterial system able to control fruit's ripening in response to different stimuli: <i>B. fruity</i>. |
+ | </p> | ||
+ | <p> | ||
+ | Furthermore, we have planned two different commercial products in order to eliminate fruit waste and to make its consumption more accessible, even in unusual places like schools and offices: the "<a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Vending%20Machine">B. fruity Vending Machine</a>" and the "<a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Home%20Edition">B. fruity Home Edition</a>". | ||
+ | </p> | ||
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<span class="subtitle">How does B. fruity work?</span> | <span class="subtitle">How does B. fruity work?</span> | ||
- | <p>We designed and started to build a genetic circuit that allows our bacteria to synthesize ethylene in order to boost fruit maturation. Ethylene is a molecule naturally produced by fruit and it affects growth, development, ripening, and senescence <span class="ref">(C. J. Brady, Plant Physiology 1987, 38: 155-178)</span>. | + | <p> |
+ | We designed and started to build a genetic circuit that allows our bacteria to synthesize ethylene in order to boost fruit maturation. Ethylene is a molecule naturally produced by fruit and it affects growth, development, ripening, and senescence <span class="ref">(C. J. Brady, Plant Physiology 1987, 38: 155-178)</span>. However, <i>B. fruity</i> does not exploit the complicated pathway present in plants, because of the undesirable production of hydrogen cyanide <span class="ref">(Shang Fa Yang et Al., Plant Physiol. 2001, 126(2): 742–749.)</span>!!! Instead, we decided to follow a different metabolic pathway, present in <i>Pseudomonas syringae</i>, which involves only one enzyme: 2-Oxoglutarate Oxygenase/Decarboxylase, an Ethylene Forming Enzyme (EFE). | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | <p> | ||
+ | As ripening inhibitor, we went for methyl salicylate (MeSA): an ester also known as wintergreen oil and naturally produced by many plants as a defense mechanism. It was previously shown to slow down the ripening process in tomatoes, at high concentration (5 mM) <span class="ref">(Chang-Kui Ding et Al., Food Chemistry 2001, 76 213–218)</span>. To achieve its production we used parts submitted by the 2006 MIT iGEM team, as well as others which we built ourselves. | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span class="tn-quote-link"><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Fruit_Info#q1">Do you know how plants produce ethylene?</a></span> | ||
+ | <span class="tn-quote-link"><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Fruit_Info#q2">Do you know that ethylene is used commercially to ripen some fruits before they enter the market?</a></span> | ||
+ | <span class="tn-quote-link"><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Fruit_Info#q3">Do you know that fruit is generally classified in two main categories?</a></span> | ||
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<span class="subtitle">How is B. fruity activated?</span> | <span class="subtitle">How is B. fruity activated?</span> | ||
- | <p>We have coupled this system to a blue light photoreceptor successfully used by other labs and iGEM teams in the past. Our system in the OFF state (no blue light) will produce methyl salicylate and, in the absence of ethylene, stop unwanted ripening, while in the ON state ( Blue light exposure) it will produce ethylene and repress methyl salicylate production, thus promoting fruit ripening.</p> | + | <p> |
- | + | We have coupled this system to a blue light photoreceptor successfully used by other labs and iGEM teams in the past. Our system in the OFF state (no blue light) will produce methyl salicylate and, in the absence of ethylene, stop unwanted ripening, while in the ON state ( Blue light exposure) it will produce ethylene and repress methyl salicylate production, thus promoting fruit ripening. | |
+ | </p> | ||
+ | |||
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/5b/Tn-2013_intro_Efe_lineare.jpg"> | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/5b/Tn-2013_intro_Efe_lineare.jpg"> | ||
- | <span class="caption">< | + | <span class="tn-caption"><b>Fig. 1:</b> a schematic representation of ethylene production regulated by a photo-inducible circuit. The inverter ensures that in presence of blue Light 2-Oxoglutarate Oxygenase/Decarboxylase (EFE) gene can be expressed.</span> |
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/7/79/Tn-2013_intro_Mesa_lineare.jpg"> | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/7/79/Tn-2013_intro_Mesa_lineare.jpg"> | ||
- | <span class="caption">< | + | <span class="tn-caption"><b>Fig. 2:</b> a schematic representation of methyl salicylate production regulated by a photo-repressible circuit. Blue light blocks the blue receptor cassette inducing activity, resulting in the repression of MeSA production.</span> |
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- | <!-- | + | <p> |
+ | You can check our <a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Datapage">DATA page</a> for a full description of the circuit. | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span class="tn-subtitle">Why B. fruity?</span> | ||
+ | <p> | ||
+ | We engineered the full system and characterized each component of the system in <i>Escherichia coli</i>. We have also tried to demonstrate the functionality of the enzymes in <i>Bacillus subtilis</i>. | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | <p> | ||
+ | In order to develop a possible commercial product it is more desirable to use a chassis able to survive without nutrients for a longer time: we thought that <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> could fit perfectly our purpose! It can make spores and be easily re-activated by removing the source of stress and adding, for example, water/nutrients. Moreover, <i>B. subtilis</i> is not a human pathogen but can, however, degrade or may contaminate food and only rarely cause food poisoning. Therefore, with the right precautions, this chassis seems to be the best system for our project. | ||
+ | </p> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span class="tn-effect-link"><a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Fruit_ripening">Check our fruit tests results!</a></span> | ||
+ | <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/d/d5/Tn-2013_fruit_img_intro.JPG"> | ||
+ | </div> | ||
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