Team:CIEI-BJ
Our project is inspired by the possible contamination of the carcinogenic aflatoxins (AFTs), in Pu'er, a Chinese traditional fermented tea. We aim to design a genetically engineered yeast system to detect and degrade its widely occurred species AFT-B1. Our system contains three modules-induction, detection and degradation. The induction module was designed based on an iGEM project in 2017 using two fragments of an antibody against AFT-B1. The detection module utilizes enhanced yellow fluorescent protein to indicate the presence of ATF-B1. In the degradation module, four candidate enzymes were incorporated individually and their activities were assessed. Both detection and degradation modules are triggered when AFT-B1 bridges the two antibody fragments. Our design not only provides a parallel detection and degradation in yeast with potential practical value for Pu'er Tea and other agricultural products, but also establishes a convenient screening system for identifying novel AFT-B1-degrading enzymes.
