Team:UT Dallas/project part1

From 2013.igem.org

CscR and FruR

FruR/CscR
The mouth is very complex in regards to the molecules that enter it. In order to selectively fight S. Mutans, we need to detect its presence in the mouth. One of the ways involved detecting the changing levels of fructose and sucrose. Using operon repressors for both sucrose and fructose, we can detect the concentrations of both of them.

We have chosen two repressors for use in this project:
FruR
CscR

How They Work
The FruR gene encodes a protein which normally binds to and represses the fructose operon. When fructose is present in the system, it binds to the FruR protein and prevents it from repressing the operon promoter.
CscR works in the similar way, but it will bind to sucrose instead.

What We Did

    We utilized these repressors, FruR and CscR, to create a construct to detect low levels of sucrose and high levels of fructose. By using the repressor systems, we can detect the formation of plaque and prevent the formation of cavities.