Team:Valencia Biocampus/Project

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Project Overview

Here goes the project abstract

Escherichia coli

Hola a todos!

Pseudomonas putida

Pronto habrá más cosas!

Caenorhabditis elegans

An overview about our nematode

One of the main characters of our work is a nematode known as Caenorhabditis elegans, from the Rhabditidae family. It was first used as an experimental model in Developmental Genetics studies and nowadays is also used in other fields such as Clinical Biology, Neurobiology and Cell Biology, being a good model to study Alzheimer disease, obesity, diabetes and aging, among others.

Another interesting thing is that it feeds on Escherichia coli. Its “favorite” strain is OP50, although we checked that it’s also able to feed on XL1-Blue strain, the one that we used in all our molecular biology experiments.

Some advantages of C. elegans when compared with other model organisms are:

• Lifespan ranges between 2 and 3 weeks, so experimentation times are reduced.

• Its maintenance and study is cheap and simple (it is transparent, which facilitates microscopic observation).

• It is very small (1 mm), so it is possible to carry out experiments with a huge number of worms in a small Petri dish having a great statistical support.

Why use C. elegans as a transport?

When we were considering on creating a new system for the transport of bacteria, we found different key advantages that made the nematode the best option. For example, C. elegans is able to move very fast around solid substrates (soil is, actually, its natural habitat) and also in agar, so it’s very useful for both lab experiments and real-environment tests.

Its movement, in addition to being very fast, has two modes: random and directed.

When there is no attractant in the medium, C. elegans moves doing uncoordinated movements in several directions in what is known as 'random walk'.

The situation changes when there is an attractant in the medium. Here, our 'transport' begins to direct his movements to the focus of the substance (volatile or soluble) which acts as an attractant in a process known as 'chemotaxis' thanks to the amazing smell of our nematode. This allows us to ‘guide’ the nematodes towards defined spots in irregular substrates.

Chemotaxis is the foundation to guide the transport of bacteria and is therefore the focus of experimentation with C. elegans, withthe aim of finding the best attractant. This ability makes C. elegans a perfect 'bus' for bacteria. (simuelegans online here)

Moreover, we found two pathogens (Yersinia pestis and Xhenorhabus nematophila) with the ability to form biofilms on C. elegans thanks to the proteins of the operon hmsHFRS. When genetically-engineered strains of commonly used bacteria such as Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas putida express this hmsHFRS operon, they have the 'ticket' to travel: they are able to adhere to the worm’s surface by means of forming a synthetic biofilm.

Parts

Name	Type	Description	Designer
BBa_K1112000	Regulatory	fadB promoter + flp-21 iRNA	Pedro Luis Dorado Morales
BBa_K1112001	Regulatory	pGlnA + hmsHFRS operon	Alba Iglesias Vilches
BBa_K1112002	DNA	Cluster PHA	Alba Iglesias Vilches

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 ==Caenorhabditis elegans==
 <html>
 <p>
-    <a name="result_box1"></a>
+	<b>An overview about our nematode</b>
-    <b><i><u>An overview about our nematode</u></i></b>
 </p>
 <p>
-    <a name="result_box"></a>
+	One of the main characters of our work is a nematode known as <b><i>Caenorhabditis elegans, </i></b>from the Rhabditidae family. It was first used as an
-    The main character of our work is a nematode known as <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>, from the Rhabditidae family. It was first used as an experimental
+	experimental model in Developmental Genetics studies and nowadays is also used in other fields such as Clinical Biology, Neurobiology and Cell Biology,
-    model in Developmental Genetics studies, and nowadays is also used in other fields such as clinical biology, neurobiology and cell biology, being a good
+	being a good model to study Alzheimer disease, obesity, diabetes and aging, among others.
-    model to study Alzheimer disease, obesity, diabetes, and aging, among others
 </p>
 <p>
-    Another interesting thing is that it feeds on <i>Escherichia coli</i>. Its “favorite” strain is OP50, although we checked that it’s also able to feed on
+	Another interesting thing is that it feeds on <b><i>Escherichia coli</i></b>. Its “favorite” strain is OP50, although we checked that it’s also able to
-    strain DH5α, the one used in all our molecular biology experiments.
+	feed on <b>XL1-Blue strain</b>, the one that we used in all our molecular biology experiments.
 </p>
 <p>
-    <br/>
+	Some advantages of C. elegans when compared with other model organisms are:
-    Some advantages of <i>C. elegans</i> when compared with other model organisms are:
 </p>
 <p>
-    -Lifespan ranges between 2 and 3 weeks, so experimentation times are reduced.
+	• Lifespan ranges between 2 and 3 weeks, so experimentation times are reduced.
-    <br/>
-    -Its maintenance and study is cheap and simple (it is transparent, which facilitates microscopic observation).
 </p>
 <p>
-    -It is very small (1 mm), so it is possible to carry out experiments with a huge number of worms in a small Petri dish having a great statistical support.
+	• Its maintenance and study is cheap and simple (it is transparent, which facilitates microscopic observation).
 </p>
 <p>
-    <b><i><u>Why use C. elegans as a transport?</u></i></b>
+	• It is very small (1 mm), so it is possible to carry out experiments with a huge number of worms in a small Petri dish having a great statistical support.
 </p>
 <p>
-    When we were considering creating a new system for the transport of bacteria, we find different key advantages that made the nematode the best option. For
+	<b>Why use C. elegans as a transport?</b>
-    example, <i>C. elegans</i> is able to move very fast around solid substrates <a name="result_box2"></a>(soil is, actually, its natural habitat) and also in
-    agar, so it’s very useful for both lab experiments and real-environment tests.
 </p>
 <p>
-    His movement, in addition to being very fast, has two modes: random and directed.
+	When we were considering on creating a new system for the transport of bacteria, we found different key advantages that made the nematode the best option.
-    <br/>
+	For example, <i>C. elegans</i> is able to move very fast around solid substrates (soil is, actually, its natural habitat) and also in agar, so it’s very
-    When there is no attractant in the medium, <i>C. elegans</i> moves doing uncoordinated movements in several directions in what is known as 'random walk'.
+	useful for both lab experiments and real-environment tests.
 </p>
 <p>
-    The situation changes when there is an attractant in the medium. Here, our 'transport' begins to direct his movements to the focus of the substance
+	Its movement, in addition to being very fast, has two modes: <b>random </b>and <b>directed.</b>
-(volatile or soluble) which acts as an attractant in a process known as 'chemotaxis' thanks to the amazing smell of our nematode.    <a name="result_box4"></a>This allows us to “guide” the nematodes towards defined spots in irregular substrates.
 </p>
 <p>
-    Chemotaxis is the foundation to guide the transport of bacteria and is therefore the focus of experimentation with <i>C. elegans</i>, with the aim of
+When there is no attractant in the medium, <i>C. elegans</i> moves doing uncoordinated movements in several directions in what is known as	<b>'random walk'.</b>
-    finding the best attractant. This ability makes <i>C. elegans </i>a perfect 'bus' for bacteria.
 </p>
 <p>
-    Moreover, we found two pathogens (<i>Yersinia pestis</i> and <i>Xhenorhabus nematophila</i>) with the ability to form biofilms on <i>C. elegans</i> thanks
+	The situation changes when there is an attractant in the medium. Here, our 'transport' begins to direct his movements to the focus of the substance
-to the proteins of the operon hmsHFRS. When genetically-engineered strains of commonly used bacteria such as <i>Escherichia coli</i> or <i>Pseudomonas</i>    <i>putida</i> express this hmsHFRS operon, they have the 'ticket' to travel: they are able to adhere to the worm’s surface by means of forming a synthetic
+	(volatile or soluble) which acts as an attractant in a process known as <b>'chemotaxis'</b> thanks to the amazing smell of our nematode. This allows us to
-    biofilm.
+	‘guide’ the nematodes <b>towards defined spots in irregular substrates.</b>
 </p>
 <p>
-    <a name="result_box3"></a>
+Chemotaxis is the foundation to guide the transport of bacteria and is therefore the focus of experimentation with <i>C. elegans</i>, with<b>the aim of finding the best attractant.</b> This ability makes <i>C. elegans </i>a perfect 'bus' for bacteria.	<b>(<a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Valencia_Biocampus/Simuelegans-Chemotaxis">simuelegans online here</a>)</b>
-    <b><i><u>Expanding our knowledge about C. elegans...</u></i></b>
 </p>
 <p>
-    Once we knew that <i>C. elegans</i> was the best option, we began to discover interesting things for further study.
+	<b> </b>
 </p>
 <p>
-    There are several strains of our nematode. The one that drew our attention was called 'N2', which had a fairly interesting behaviour: under normal
+	Moreover, we found two pathogens (<i>Yersinia pestis</i> and <i>Xhenorhabus nematophila</i>) with the ability to form biofilms on <i>C. elegans</i> thanks
-    conditions, it eats individually, whereas under certain conditions (such as starvation), a social feeding behavior known as “clumping” is induced. But this
+to the proteins of the <b>operon hmsHFRS.</b> When genetically-engineered strains of commonly used bacteria such as <i>Escherichia coli</i> or	<i>Pseudomonas</i> <i>putida</i> express this hmsHFRS operon, they have the 'ticket' to travel: they are able to adhere to the worm’s surface by means of
-    phenomenon can also be induced if the expression of some particular genes is interfered. This fact gave us the opportunity to develop the first artificial
+	forming a synthetic biofilm.
-symbiosis between worms and bacteria, based on the manipulation of the behaviour of <i>C. elegans</i> by simply nourishing it with transformed    <i>E.coli </i>able to synthesize the iRNA.
 </p>
-<p>
-    With it, while<i> C. elegans </i>acts as transport, bacteria return the favour giving it the ability to eat in company.
-</p>