Team:Nanjing/Plant
Plant Synthetic Biology
Best Plant Synthetic Biology Special Prize
Our project is using agrobacteria to produce chitinase in tobacco leaves in order to help resist insect’s infection. Chitin is the composition of insects’ exoskeleton and digestion tract. Chitinase can decompose chitin and hence reduce insect infection. Moreover, human body doesn’t include chitin, so consuming chitinase won’t cause harm to humans. This method can be used as a “green pesticide” which doesn’t damage the environment as chemical pesticides do. The gene of interest we use is the chitinase gene from cotton. We adopt binary system in transporting the gene of interest because it can increase the efficiency and success rate. After the establishment of new plasmid, we perform a micropropagation with tobacco leave pieces to ensure the new plant will contain the gene we want. At the same time, we will insert an GFP gene in our plasmid to help test whether our chitinase is produced normally. If this method can work successfully, it will be useful in future agricultural industry and will be effective in achieving the sustainable development.