OVERVIEW

To ensure the ability of our system, it is composed of four main biological components. The parts we are using are bacteriophage, a host bacteria, an elastin-like-polymer ( ELP), and a metal binding protein.

Together, the four components will work together to sequester and remove metal ions from a solution.

BACTERIAL HOST

When considering a potential bacteria host that would be compatible with our system, the following criteria must be met.

I) The host can be parasitized by a bacteria-phage amenable to engineering.
II) The host can survive in high metal concentrations.
III) The host can resist temperature fluctuations and aggregation.

Chosen accordingly to the criteria, we have decided to explore the host bacteria: Escherichia coli as our proof of concept as it is a well-studied model organism with defined methods of genetic manipulation and is easily accessible in our lab.

In real-life applications of our system, we will be using methanotrophic bacteria as it is one of the few natural organisms that can survive in the detrimental environment of tailings ponds. By using the methanotrophic bacteria it also ensures a cost-efficient and sustainable system as the bacteria already naturally exists in the tailings pond. The additional benefit of working with E. coli is that results obtained in the system will inform in silico modelling, allowing us to design other phage systems for different organisms.

In summary, the choice of host defines numerous properties of the system in terms of energy input, phage production, and efficiency of removing the metal ions from the oil and mining tailings ponds. Our initial efforts with E. coli will inform our design of other host-phage systems, and alter the way in which our device works to capture and sequester ions in mining and oil tailings ponds.