Team:Botchan Lab Tokyo
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Our project is as follows. First, express nitrogenase inside E.coli to make ammonium from nitrogen in the air. Second, express Glutamic acids dehydrase gene into the same E.coli to make glutamic acid from ammonium. In the future we want to colonize this E.coli into human intestine. Through this plan, we can get amino acid without eating protein food. Last season, we succeeded in introduce nif BHDKENXhesA operon and nifVSU operon, which is necessary to express nitrogenase. This year, we checked nitrogenase activity on our E.coli and introduce glutamate dehydrase gene to make amino acid. In the future, we want to invent a mechanism to colonize this E.coli in human intestinal flora. Our final goal is to solve the problem of malnutrition with this mechanism.
BACKGROUND
Food crisis. This is one of the world's most serious issue. Many people suffer from malnutrition due to the lack of food. You might think the only solution to solve this problem is to raise the production of our staple food, such as grains, potatoes and so on which contain much carbohydrates. Actually, this is not the case. We already have enough carbohydrate. Carbohydrates can only be our energy source. The essence of malnutrition lies in the lack of protein.
Cassava is a good example. Although cassava is abundant in carbohydrates, it is poor in other nutrients, especially proteins. People in the area who eat this crop as a staple food tend to suffer from nutritional deficiencies. This shows us that carbohydrates are enough but the protein is deficient.
Protein is a substance constituting our body and is made of amino acids. To consist amino acids, nitrogen is necessary substance. This means, what we need is not a carbon source but a nitrogen source. We usually intake nitrogen source by eating proteins like those obtained from livestock. However, raising livestock requires enormous energy ,grain, water, time, etc. This nitrogen source may no longer be sustainable. So, we searched the way to synthesize amino acid from nitrogen.
Achievements
| bronz | status |
|---|---|
| Register the team | done |
| Deliverables | done |
| Attribution | done |
| Participate in the Interlab Measurement Study | done |
| silver | |
| Validated Part / Validated Contribution | done |
| Collaboration | done |
| Human Practices | done |
| gold | |
| Integrated Human Practices | done |
| Model your project | done |