Team:SDSZ China/Our Solution

• 
• Project
  Background Our Solution
• Experiment A
  Experiment Lab Journal
• Experiment B
• Machines
  Background Information Product Flow Improvement
• Model
• Human Practice
  Human Practice Overview Integrated Human Practice Education and Public Engagement collaborations video
• Team
  About Us Our School Our Lab Our Club Team Establishment
• Safety
• Attribution
  Team Member References
• Improvement

WHAT IS CHITIN

Sea food is almost a common delicacy to everyone. Boston is famous for lobster; Japan is famous for all kinds of sashimi. Few people have paid attention to the huge amount of shells being tossed away annually, but, in fact, there is a special kind of chemical component forming the crustaceans’ outer bones. This is CHITIN（(C8H13O5N)n), an abundant natural macromolecular substances that is rich in common crustaceans such as insects or crabs. In most crustaceans, chitin is combined with calcium carbonate and produces a much stronger composite. This composite material is much harder and stiffer than pure chitin, and is tougher and less brittle than pure calcium carbonate. Chitin is insoluble and lack of bioactivity, therefore not widely used in industry.

WHAT IS CHITOSAN

Thus it led us think of the promising biotechnology treatment by using chitin-active enzymes classified from nature to produce chitosan. The only by-product is acetic acid, which is far less harmful to environment than concentrated acid and alkali.

There are two kinds of active enzymes found in creatures that are related to the transformation of chitin. Chitinase is able to hydrolyze chitin yielding monomers. Chitin deacetylase (known as CDA) could hydrolyze the acetamino group on chitin, directly yielding chitosan. Our research focused more on CDA.

But the problem is that available source of chitin and currently examined CDAs are unmatched. The only industrial-available source of chitin is the especially high-crystallized chitin from shrimps and crab shells. As reported, CDA has been found in bacteria, moulds and insects, but the examined ones are all inactive toward crystallized chitin. This is the reason why enzymolysis is not widely used in chitosan industry.

Thus, separation, identification and production of crystal-chitin-active-enzymes is crucial to solving this problem, hence accelerate the industrialization of environmental-friendly chitosan production considerably, and give instruction to research on arthropodic ecdysis and aquacultural production.

So we planned to obtain the genes of creatures who can produce CDA, and then overlap the gene of CDA, the gene of chitinase, and the gene of a protein that can combine with chitin, whose main function is to accelerate the reaction. Then we would let the competent cells translate these genes into proteins together and react spontaneously. Once target protein shows up, we would then cultivate the bacteria, measure the liveliness of the synthesised enzyme, and determined maximum yield rate.

The goal we want to achieve is to maximise the range of chitin’s mass we could break down, the production rate, and the purity of chitosan.

©SDSZ_China 2018. All rights reserved.