Team:Missouri Miners/Description
Description and Inspiration
Genetic Engineering is an incredible technology. It has the possibility to revolutionize countless areas of science, from medicine to agriculture. You must also know then, of the stigma and negative connotation that too often accompanies discussion of genetic engineering. The goal of our iGEM team this year is to do our part to combat that stigma by making the topic of genetic engineering approachable to all people.
One of the best ways to help people accept an opinion or idea that is different from what they believe is to offer some common ground. In the case of our project, we are entered the magical world of a particular boy wizard. The wet lab portion of our project focused on the designing of five different bacterial strains. Four of these strains represented the four houses of the the famous wizarding school. Into each of these strains, we hoped to enter a sequence that would lead to the production of a homoserine lactone. Homoserine lactones are naturally occurring signaling molecules. These molecules can signal the change in the expression of genes in other nearby cells. This is where the fifth strain would come into play. Into the fifth strain, we hoped to insert the necessary sequences to sense the four homoserine lactones from the house colonies. Each house would produce a molecule that was distinct from the other three. When the fifth strain senseed one of the homoserine lactones from a house colony it would fluoresce the color that corresponds with that house.
The idea then, was that the house colonies would compete in a sort of house cup. Classically, the four houses compete against each other for house points throughout the year. The house with the most points at the end of the year wins the house cup. In our work, the four house strains were to be plated at the periphery of a plate. The fifth, sensing strain, was to be placed in the center of the plate. The houses were then to compete for levels of fluorescence rather than house points. The winning strain would be the one that produced the most fluorescence in the sensing colonies by producing the best or most homoserine lactone molecules. Predictions and modelling can be conducted based on the properties of lactones regarding their size, polarity, and functional groups. UV-Vis spectroscopy can be conducted at the end of the experiment to qualitatively determine the winner.
Ideally, the actual wet lab for this experiment, while extensive, should have been fairly straightforward. This was to allow us to focus significant effort on our outreach programs. However, we had difficulties in the wet lab experiment. We were still able to do a significant amount of research. During the work completed throughout the course of the summer, we took information and presentations to schools, science centers, and other gatherings throughout the area. The goal was to present applications of genetic engineering techniques with a tangible, visible product. The process of the theoretical lab work we were doing was explainable at a level understandable to most ages. We had members of our team excited about digitally designing models and diagrams of what is happening at the molecular scale. Not only this, but we had actual plates showing the fluorescent strains produced with help from our adviser. And of course, all of the material presented was related back to everyone's favorite wizard. By presenting the material in a concise, easy to understand format in relation a the familiar topic, the once intimidating topic of genetic engineering can be made approachable and exciting.
The problem of the negative stigma of genetic engineering is not one that can be solved overnight. And rightly so. It is a powerful technology that has a lot of potential. This potential is incredible, but it also brings with it the inherent potential for negative uses. The discussion of what kind of genetic engineering is acceptable and what is not is and important one and will become increasingly more so in the near future. In order to give the topic the respect it deserves, and to not bar ourselves from future opportunities and products, we must be well educated on what it is and what it can be. We presented genetic engineering in a positive light and showed its capabilities while providing knowledge on how it works. Education begins with a conversation, and we hope our Missouri Miners iGEM helped to break the ice and get it started.
Lab Work
Over the course of the year, we worked to develop four strains of E. coli that would produce distinct homoserine lactones to serve as the four houses. These homoserine lactones are products that function as quorum sensing molecules. We were then attempting to create a fifth strain that would be able to sense each of the distinct molecules and in turn change color corresponding to the house it was receiving the most signalling molecule from. Unfortunately we were unable to synthesize strains that would produce the homoserine lactone molecules. We were however able to create strains with kit plate sequences to produce E. coli strains of red (RFP), blue (BFP), green (GFP), and gold (YFP) character. After being unable to complete work on these we attempted to characterize a part from a previous year’s project. We have submitted the plasmid and will be doing more testing to further verify its character. The part BBa K3043002 is described on our contribution page.