Team:UNITN-Trento/Project/Methyl Salicylate
From 2013.igem.org
B. fruity needs also a fruit ripening ihnibitor. It was difficult to find a volatile molecule that could be enzymatically produced by a bacteria and also demonstrated to be an efficient ripening inhbitor. There were not many candidates to choose from and after a long search we chose methyl salicylate (MeSA). Previous publications suggested that MeSA inhibits the ripening of kiwifruit (Aghdam M. et al., Journal of Agricultural Science. June 2011, Vol. 3, 2, pp. 149-156) and tomatoes, at a concentration of 0.5 mM (Ding, C. and Wang, Plant Science 2003, Y. 164 pp. 589-596).
We were happy to find out that many of the needed parts were already available in the registry. These parts were initally built by the MIT 2006 iGEM team for the project Eau de coli.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/d/dd/Tn-2013_MeSA_path.jpg)
We modified and improved these parts and resubmitted them to the registry. For example we substituted the pTet promoter controlling the BSMT1 enzyme with an araC-pBAD promoter. Additionally the MIT team did not include in their MeSA generator device the enzyme SAM synthetase, that we hope will boost MeSA production. We also have re-submitted in pSB1C3 the single enzymes of the pathway.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/4/41/Tn-2013_Mesa_main_parts.jpg)
MeSA is an highly volatile liquid with a distinct smell similar to mint. We exploited this physical property to quantify the production of MeSA by gas chromatography using a Finnigan Trace GC ULTRA connected to a flame ionization detector (FID). This kind of instrument, is able to detect ions formed during MeSA combustion in a hydrogen flame. The generation of this ions is proportional to MeSA concentration in the sample stream. A calibration curve was initially created using samples with a well known pure MeSA concentration (0 mM, 0.2 mM, 0.5 mM, 1.0 mM, 2 mM).
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/4/4f/Tn-2013_Taratura_MeSA.jpg)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/d/d4/Induced_sample_produce_MeSA.png)
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/4/41/Tn-2013_Mesa_main_parts.jpg)