Team:Newcastle/Notebook/Endophyte
Alternative Roots
Endophytic Chassis Notebook
NOTEBOOK
Developing Pseudomonas as a new endophytic chassis
One application of root-colonising Pseudomonas sp. strain CT 364, as a proposed chassis endophyte, was to produce the naturally-occurring chemical, naringenin, in and around plant roots. The substance, as demonstrated in our laboratory (link), attracts free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria. Under the right conditions, this would benefit the plant by increasing nitrogen availability, and possibly reduce the need for synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use.
In the lab, we demonstrated that Pseudomonas sp. was a genetically tractable chassis organism, and that it could be used to colonise Arabidopsis roots. Based on this evidence, we propose that plant roots, colonised with Pseudomas sp. expressing an operon with genes for naringenin biosynthesis, would create a naringenin concentration gradient in the surrounding soil environment. To provide an early insight into the effect that naringenin production would have on the surrounding microbial community, and to provide visualisations for the public, we developed the microbial community modelling to imitate what is happening in the soil around the colonised root.
Week Commencing 30/07
Development of our new endophytic chassis began on the 1st of August with the arrival of root colonising Pseudomonas sp. DSM25356 from DSMZ in Germany. The strain arrived in a glass ampoule and was inoculated onto tryptone soya agar plates using methods outlined by DSMZ.The plates were incubated at 28 ℃ for 24 hours after which they were used to inoculate tryptone soya broth for initial growth characterisation
Week Commencing 06/08
The day began with a talk from Jon Marles-Wright about the importance of human practices and the impacts of our projects in the real world. This was followed by Dana Ofiteru who taught us about mathematical modeling of biological systems. In the afternoon, plant biologist Max Kapralov discussed using synthetic biology to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis. Finally, Rachel Armstrong (professor of experimental architecture) discussed the potential of microorganism in waste management systems and energy production in the built environment. Rachel also outlined political and economic issues surrounding synthetic biology.
