Team:Kyoto/Human Practices
As a project in 2018, iGEM Kyoto worked on the creation of salt-absorbing yeast. In most cases, the function of biomolecules is greatly affected by the salt concentration in solution. In order to avoid situations where the function of synthetic biological devices is inhibited at high salt concentration, our device aims to adjust the salt concentration of the culture solution.
In order to consider where our device can be used practically, we studied various examples of synthetic biological devices and asked the experts about many social problems caused by high salt concentration. Among salt related social problems, Salt damage is particularly serious. How can our device contribute to Salt Damage and what kind of function is expected in our device? To search these answers, we not only asked experts in Salt Damage but also set up opportunities to listen to the public who are unfamiliar with synthetic biology.
Among these opportunities, we noticed that cognition about synthetic biology is much lower than we imagined in Japanese society. Furthermore, most people did not know about the activities of iGEM. Many synthetic biological devices, including ours, are created every day to solve all possible social problems. We believe that in order for these devices to be used in the actual field, not only special experts but also general public need to have an understanding of synthetic biology. Therefore, in the following events, we advertised on synthetic biology and iGEM and worked on improving cognition about these activities in Japanese society.
As we showed in results page, salt concentration has a great influence on protein-protein interaction. Besides, the behavior of various biomolecules is greatly influenced by salt concentration. Rather than solving this device in the test tube alone, is there any possibility of expanding the application to solve something more social? While exploring this question, we encountered a serious problem caused by high salt concentration, salt damage.
Salt damage is a phenomenon that the growth of crops is inhibited by salt accumulation in the soil. Since plants do not require salt for growth, excess salts in the soil become growth inhibiting substances. For example, high concentrations of sodium ions in the soil cause osmotic pressure to inhibit the ability to suck up water, soils lose their water holding capacity, and enzyme reactions in plant bodies are regulated.
Salt damage is occurring in one-fifth of the world's agricultural land. Is it possible that our device will contribute even a bit to this problem? We searched for an expert on salt damage and explored the possibility to find an answer to this question.
If we study synthetic biology, we often spend much time inside the lab. So, we tend to consider just biological aspects of GMOs or ease in handling them in the laboratory. However, in order to make use of synthetic biology, it is necessary to embrace ideas of public people and people of various fields.
Fortunately, we were able to get many opportunities to interact with a wide range of people from junior high school students to university professors, Such opportunities made us notice new issues and applications of our project.
In promoting the iGEM project, iGEMers cannot avoid from conducting a wide variety of experiments. It is very difficult to carry out such many experiments by ourselves alone. When we stumble on the experiment we get advice from a person familiar with it, and when we face a financial problem, we will borrow laboratory instrument. Under such cooperation with people outside the team, we were able to proceed with the project to the end. And, similarly, iGEM Kyoto 2018, in the process of making yeasts which absorb salt, stumbled on construction and assay many times. In each case, we got advice and help from many people, making it possible to proceed with the project. Without their help, we could not write wiki like this now. We must thank them again.
https://2018.igem.org/Team:Kyoto/ExpertInterview