Team:TU-Munich/Project/Killswitch

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Red light triggered self-destruction – a new mechanism preventing uncontrolled spread of transgenic plants

Background – Why generate a plant which kills itself under certain conditions?

Working with plants is easy since as photoautotrophic organisms they can provide their own energy. So creating a photosensitive plant might seem silly at first glance. "Crazy, stupid Germans!", you might think, but wait, there's more! Green biotechnology doesnt have an easy stand in Germany since the "German Angst" of uncontrolled spreading of transgenic plants. Therefore, we see it as our task and duty to meet the required high safety standards that minimize these risks for a maximum of biosafety. We created a plant that can only survive in a well defined environment. Plants don't neccessarily need the whole spectrum of light to supply themselves with energy, so reassigning part of the spectrum to other purposes is possible. Shielded from red light by filters, the moss survives without compromising vitality or growth. Unintended release of our protected environment leads to activation of a lethal process of no return and thus kills the moss.

Our solution – a red light-triggered autokill system

PhyB - PIF3/PIF6 interaction under red light exposition

Phytochrome B (abbrev.: PhyB) is a plant photoreceptor that exists in two interconvertible forms Pr and P<sub<fr</sub>

Reconstitution of Split-TEV-Protease

Liberation of membrane-anchored nuclease and nuclear translocation

Disruption of the genetic material and programmed cell-death

Design of our construct

Results

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References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6327079 Edens et al., 1984

  1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6327079 Edens et al., 1984 Edens, L., Bom, I., Ledeboer, A. M., Maat, J., Toonen, M. Y., Visser, C., and Verrips, C. T. (1984). Synthesis and processing of the plant protein thaumatin in yeast. Cell, 37(2):629–33.




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