Background

Modules:

Our project is PlastiCity. The project can be divided into 3 modules. Firstly, we designed a waste cocktail degradation module, which can be further sub-divided into 3 separate modules. These sub-modules are that of PolyURethane [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane PUR degradation], PolyLactic Acid [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid PLA degradation], and Poly-3-HydroxyButyrate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate P3HB degradation]. As many plastic products are produced as mixed plastics, this conglomerate of degradative bacteria will successfully degrade petrochemical plastics and bioplastics. In addition to this, using our second module, we will have P3HB biosynthesis. We intend to synthesise P3HB, a bioplastic from its constituent monomers, that are in themselves, a byproduct of our degradation pathway. The third is the secretion toolkit. This will incorporate the existing secretion biobricks contained within the registry along with those that we have designed and chemically synthesised. These will be transformed into a plasmid in our chassis, E. coli. This will thus permit any future iGEM team to extract their desired secretion tags for use in their construct. With the addition of characterisation data, this will provide a thorough platform to inform decision making for secretion tags.