Of CO₂urse

In order to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide which is surrounding in environment, our team has developed a device, containing our engineered E. coli to fix the carbon dioxide when it undergoes its native metabolic pathway. Those three data, temperature, concentration of carbon dioxide, and pH value will be shown on the screen as we have developed an app for our user. All of our ideas are to provide an another choice for public without any replacement as we are really longing for the low carbon society. Therefore, we using microorganism to 'of course', reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The issue of the greenhouse effect has always been a problem that needs to be solved by not only some environmental protection section but to all human being in the current society since the awakeness of industrial evolution in 18^th century.

Greenhouse effect brings a lot of side effect to us. For example, ice will melt, and it causes the rise of sea level while the land for terrestrial to live is getting lesser and lesser. Besides, the global temperature will increase resulting the rise of sea temperature, and that rise of temperature will make the chemical reaction in the sea to be faster than usual depleting the coral reef so the ecosystem in the sea will become unbalance. Furthermore, greenhouse effect will also be resulting the depletion of the ozone layer. It means that living things will exposed under ultraviolet light and all the living things will live at a high mutation rate. As a result, human will easily get the dermatitis disease than the past and even thought skin cancer.

In conclusion, if we are still not going to take care of this, we will face the risk of extinction as the situation is getting worse. As one of the members in global village, our team, NCKU_Tainan think that we should enroll ourselves in movement that can help reduce the emission of greenhouse gaseous (GHGs). This year, our team have designed a new way to catch one of the GHGs, carbon dioxide (CO₂) by using an advance and modern technique nowadays, Synthetic Biology. Without any replacement with other ways but to offer another way to public, the public could used it in different condition.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, industry have long been committed to energy saving and carbon reduction in the process, and carbon dioxide emissions in the factory are moving toward the development of Carbon dioxide Capture, Storage, and Utilization (CCSU) to reduce directly emits CO₂ into the atmosphere.

After doing our research, we believed that it is possible to clone some gene fragments that can express PRK, CA and RuBisCO which is from a unicellular cyanobacteria strain, Synchococcus alongatus pcc 7942 and Synchococcus alongatus pcc 7002 into our model organism, E. coli. After cloning the three gene fragments into our E. coli, it could express those gene and make a new metabolic pathway that can accomplish carbon capture, subverting the cognition that only most of the plants could fix carbon dioxide.

Firstly, E. coli will uptake xylose in the surrounding of its cultivation environment. After that, xylose will be metabolized and converted into Ru5P by its own native metabolic pathway. Next, PRK will convert Ru5P into RuBP. Lastly, RuBP will react with carbon dioxide which fixed by RuBisCO converted into 3-PGA and 3-PGA will become a multifunctional intermediate, pyruvate.

In order to integrate with industrial IGCC system, our team designed a device which divided into three main parts, a bioreactor, consisting a pH meter, a thermometer and a carbon dioxide sensor that could let our engineered E. coli to fix carbon dioxide. The second part and third part are a nutrient tank, containing a fed-batch culture system and a collection tank to collect waste and product at the end of the whole progress.

Next, for the consideration to allow our users monitor the internal condition of our device conveniently, we have developed an app for them. By using this app, users could see the data of temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and also pH value which is from our database, uploaded by WI-FI.

In the Integrated Human Practice, we improved our project from different activities in the different aspects. We visited professors when we encountered difficulties, and they always give us corrections instantly. Since our project converge diversify fields, the more suggestions we had, the more complete our project we propose.

As for the appliance of our project, industrial interview is our primary concern. To satisfy enterprise's demand, we researched a lot and modified our project to make it better. What's more, after interview with enterprise, they suggested us to concern more about maximizing the benefit and making the lowest cost of our project simultaneously. Meeting up with other iGEMers built a strong friendship with those who also have interest in synthetic biology. We communicated with each other, figured out the possibility of collaboration, and created a win-win situation.

For the education and public engagement, we attempt to introduce synthetic biology to the students and public in more interesting way. The more people we affect, the more people we can cooperate.

Different from normal course, we design easy-going but interesting experiment and app game for students and public, which let them be fond of and involved in iGEM. After the activity, their feedback help us to understand their feelings. Then we can adjust in the next promotion we brought to the society. In addition, we also recognize where we do well and where we have to modify more to trigger more people interest in iGEM.

Besides, we joined festival in NCKU and medical conference, and operated our fan page to increase our project exposure, as well as synthetic biology and iGEM. It also raise the discussion of iGEM in our school, which attracted more student to join us.

Reference

1. “TIL: It's Currently 20°C Hotter In The North Pole Than It Should Be.” Busy, 21 Nov. 2016, busy.org/@sirwinchester/til-it-s-currently-20-c-hotter-in-the-north-pole-than-it-should-be.