"
Team:Berkeley/Applications
From 2013.igem.org
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
<div id = "FMO"> | <div id = "FMO"> | ||
<div id="1"><div class = "heading-large"><a name="Other Applications">Other Applications</a></div> | <div id="1"><div class = "heading-large"><a name="Other Applications">Other Applications</a></div> | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> Over the summer, we looked into other possible interesting applications utilizing with our biological indigo dyeing process. | ||
| + | One application we envisioned was a fast and novel biosensor mechanism with our biological process utilizing our soluble indigo (indican)! | ||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
| Line 27: | Line 30: | ||
to rotting meat volatile sensors. These teams used a variety of colorimetric reporter elements as well to signify the detection | to rotting meat volatile sensors. These teams used a variety of colorimetric reporter elements as well to signify the detection | ||
of their substrate of interest ranging from fluorescent proteins to a variety of pigments. All of these projects however dependent | of their substrate of interest ranging from fluorescent proteins to a variety of pigments. All of these projects however dependent | ||
| - | on transcription initiation on the reporter after the signal is detected. We have devised a novel mechanism to see our reporter compound, | + | on transcription initiation on the reporter after the signal is detected. We have conceptually devised a novel mechanism to see our reporter compound, |
indigo, in a matter of minutes!</p> | indigo, in a matter of minutes!</p> | ||
</p> | </p> | ||
Revision as of 06:14, 27 October 2013
Over the summer, we looked into other possible interesting applications utilizing with our biological indigo dyeing process.
One application we envisioned was a fast and novel biosensor mechanism with our biological process utilizing our soluble indigo (indican)!
Current biosensors require transcriptional initiation on the reporter upon the detection of some substrate. While effective, this process can take many hours (in most cases 12+ hours) to see the reporter! In iGEM, several teams have used the biosensor approach in their iGEM projects developing biosensors ranging from cyanide and heavy metal sensors to rotting meat volatile sensors. These teams used a variety of colorimetric reporter elements as well to signify the detection of their substrate of interest ranging from fluorescent proteins to a variety of pigments. All of these projects however dependent on transcription initiation on the reporter after the signal is detected. We have conceptually devised a novel mechanism to see our reporter compound, indigo, in a matter of minutes!
We will be utilizing our biological dyeing process to design our reporter system. In our reporter system, we will have our glucosidase enzyme that can be “turned off” or “on”, a build up store of indican in the cell, and receptors to detect the signal. Thus, when the signal is detected, our glucosidase enzyme will be “turned on,” and will subsequently convert the already present indican into indoxyl. Indoxyl will rapidly dimerize in the presence in the oxygen, allowing us to visually detect indigo as a result. This process is faster than the conventional mechanisms that require transcriptional initiation on the reporter upon the detection of some substrate for the following reasons:
