Team:BNU-China
About us
This year, BNU-China is truly fascinated by BIOMINERALIZATION, by which biological organisms produce hierarchically structured minerals with marvellous functions. We are aiming at modifying the genome of Chaetomium globosum to display E.coli K12 50S ribosomal protein L2 onto its surface. Meanwhile, with the help of Mcfp3 which acts as a flocculating protein, cells could automatically cement into solid granules as an inactive and stable form.
● Chaetomium globosum is a widely used fungi with developed mycelia, large spreading area and strong tolerance.
● E.coli K12 50S ribosomal protein L2 has been demonstrated to have higher ability in binding silica. The protein is encoded by rplB, which was amplified by polymerase chain reaction.
● MCFP3 is a filopodia protein secreted from the mussel Mytilus californianus, it could slowly consolidate the binding of cells to particles.
Biology is closely linked with the real life--every basic research in lab may be a universal finding. After transfer those parts into Chaetomium globosum , we are aiming at cementing sand in the real desert. For which we created a word termed “desandilization”.
Bacterial species degradation is a common problem in laboratory and bioindustrial production. Usually, the strain degradation means the ability of the bacteria to produce target products is reduced or completely disappeared. When some engineering bacterium lose the expression vectors of product, they have a smaller pressure to survive, with strong competitiveness, but keeping the pathway, the engineering bacterium will be behind the competition. As a result, the macroscopic display is degradation.
It is mainly produced for the following reasons:
(1) Gene mutation. Bacterium often degrade because of mutations of gene that control products in the genome or by the loss of plasmids, resulting in inability or inefficiency to produce the target products.
(2) The continuous passages of the strain cause degradation. Mutations always occurs in the cell cycle. The more times of passages happen, the more mutations appear. At the same time, a small amount of degraded bacterium multiply quickly.
(3) The culture medium and preservation environment also affect the degradation of the strain.
Currently, the commonly methods to prevent degradations generally include :
(1) to minimize the passages;
(2) purification of strains;
(3) improve the culture medium and living environment;
(4) use good saving methods.
All of these methods have defects and need to be explored blindly for a long time. What’s more, none of them can give full play to the potential of the bacterium .
With the knowledge of the synthetic biology, we design a system that bacteria can screen out the degraded bacterium themselves, and the non-degraded strains will also get some compensations. Ideally, by using this system, the strain's life cycle would be greatly increased and the cost of the products would be greatly reduced.
Contact
BNU
Xinjiekouwai st 19
Haidian district
China
Phone: 010-5880520713810968763