Team:KU Leuven/Project/Aphid Background

From 2013.igem.org

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     <p align="justify"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid"> Aphids</a></b>, those pesky little green plant-sucking bugs, can pose serious threats to a farmer's proceeds. Not only is <b>physical damage</b> to the crops caused by the sucking a problem, but aphids also transmit harmful <b>viruses</b> to the plants. The magnitude of crop loss for the farmers is difficult to quantify as it varies with aphid species, crop species, location, year and many other factors, but it <b>can run in the millions</b>. Farmers try to control the aphid infestation with the use of <b>insecticides</b> but this is ineffective and contested. Aphids become resistant to insecticides quite rapid and insecticides also have a negative effect on their natural predators. That is why we, the <b><a href="http://www.kuleuven.be/kuleuven/"> KU Leuven </a> iGEM 2013 team</b>, decided to do something about this in a sustainable way by using an insecticide-free controlling mechanism. With <b>E.coligy: Plants with BanAphids</b> we will teach E.coli cells to hack into insects <b>signaling systems</b> to drive off the aphids and attract their <b>natural predators</b>, such as the ladybug</p>
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     <p align="justify">Aphids are an extremely successful group of insects which occurs throughout the world, with the greatest number of species in the temperate regions: Europe, North America and Asia (Dixon et al, 1987). As individuals they are small and inconspicuous. However, they can become so numerous that they can damage whole fields or orchards. The complex life cycles and polymorphism enable them to exploit their host plants and respond to every alteration of their environment to a high degree (Biology of Aphids, Dixon, 1973). Aphids are small, mostly soft-bodied insects of the super family Aphidoidea (World crop pests, 2A, Aphids their biology, natural enemies and control, minks and harrewijn). Their body can be green, black brown, pink or almost colourless (Biology of aphids, Dixon, 1973). About 4400 species of 10 families are known and around 10% of these species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry (Dedryver et al, 2010). Annual worldwide crop losses due to aphids are estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars (Morrison and Peairs 1998).</p>
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Revision as of 12:28, 30 August 2013

Secret garden

Congratulations! You've found our secret garden! Follow the instructions below and win a great prize at the World jamboree!


  • A video shows that two of our team members are having great fun at our favourite company. Do you know the name of the second member that appears in the video?
  • For one of our models we had to do very extensive computations. To prevent our own computers from overheating and to keep the temperature in our iGEM room at a normal level, we used a supercomputer. Which centre maintains this supercomputer? (Dutch abbreviation)
  • We organised a symposium with a debate, some seminars and 2 iGEM project presentations. An iGEM team came all the way from the Netherlands to present their project. What is the name of their city?

Now put all of these in this URL:https://2013.igem.org/Team:KU_Leuven/(firstname)(abbreviation)(city), (loose the brackets and put everything in lowercase) and follow the very last instruction to get your special jamboree prize!

tree ladybugcartoon

iGem

Aphids are an extremely successful group of insects which occurs throughout the world, with the greatest number of species in the temperate regions: Europe, North America and Asia (Dixon et al, 1987). As individuals they are small and inconspicuous. However, they can become so numerous that they can damage whole fields or orchards. The complex life cycles and polymorphism enable them to exploit their host plants and respond to every alteration of their environment to a high degree (Biology of Aphids, Dixon, 1973). Aphids are small, mostly soft-bodied insects of the super family Aphidoidea (World crop pests, 2A, Aphids their biology, natural enemies and control, minks and harrewijn). Their body can be green, black brown, pink or almost colourless (Biology of aphids, Dixon, 1973). About 4400 species of 10 families are known and around 10% of these species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry (Dedryver et al, 2010). Annual worldwide crop losses due to aphids are estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars (Morrison and Peairs 1998).

Group picture