Project Overview

Planning

In the process of deciding on a project for iGEM 2013 we've considered a multitude of ideas, including bacterial consortia against desertification, genomic encryption, anti-algal bacterial paint, and bacterial nano wires. Each of them was found to have its own strengths and weaknesses. For example bacterial consortia was a wonderful big idea, with a fundamental background from recent research, however due to the competition format and time limit on iGEM it was considered unreliable, where the level of input would have had little effect on the output due to the novelty of the subject, limited time and resourced to build such a system. The genomic encryption and nano wires ware not taken any further from the discussion at a number of meetings due to the lack of comprehensive information on the matters. As a result of this we have found a project we believe to be destined to revolutionise the approach to synthetic biology by introducing a BioBrick which would act as a switch for production and loss of bacterial cell wall in the model Gram positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis on our demand, while still allowing it to grow and divide. B. subtilis without a cell wall is better in many different ways and should be used as a new chassis for use in Synthetic Biology'.

Analysis

List of requirements for our system (i.e desired qualities of the L-forms) This could be our mini themes descriptions.

Modelling

The next step on the diagram is modelling. This step is an essential part of a successful synthetic biology project. Although it requires a lot of time and effort, and therefore is often neglected. We believe that in the long run modelling can save a lot of time, effort and resources to those who take their time in the beginning, simulating all the possible outcomes of the system and refining it at an early stage, before any in vitro and in vivo experiments have been planned and conducted. Another positive side to modelling prior to the "wet lab" sessions is the fact that a model behaves according to the known facts and principles, and if in real life the outcome drastically differs from the simulation, there's a good chance of finding out what may be causing the difference through adjusting the model and repeating the experiments.

For every research theme we have constructed a model to help us understand the systems we engineered. Click on the links to view each model or visit our modelling page:

• L-form switch
• Cell Shape
• Cell Fusion
• Hbsu-xFP

Implementation

What we've done for each project (brief summary)

Testing

Summary of results we've obtained.

References

Walker R, Ferguson CMJ, Booth NA and Allan EJ (2002) The symbiosis of Bacillus subtilis L-forms with Chinese cabbage seedlings inhibits conidial germination of ‘Botrytis cinerea. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 34, 42-45.

Chang S and Cohen SN (1979)High frequency transformation of Bacillus subtilis protoplasts by plasmid DNA. Molecular Genetics & Genomics, 168, 111–115.

Mercier R, Kawai Y and Errington J. (2013) Excess Membrane Synthesis Drives a Primitive Mode of Cell Proliferation, Cell, 152, 997–1007.