Team:RHIT/Results
Results
Metallothionein
The culmination of testing for this project was to examine how well both constructs (A1 and A2) could handle the bioremediation of arsenic. The full protocol can be found in the lab notebook, and details on the parts used in the design section of the wiki. Our results show that both A1 and A2 were successful at removing arsenite ions from the aqueous solution, and as the total amount of arsenite continued to move down as time increased, cells were able to survive as well. Small decreases were noticed in the negative control as well, as arsenite is naturally transported in and out of cells through aquaglyceroporins (AQPs). In the shorter term (8 hours), A2, which produces metallothionein constantly due to its constitutive promoter, showed better bioremediation of the arsenite. However, at the longer time scale, the arsenic controlled (through ArsR) A1 ended up proving more effective at removing arsenic.
SOD Enzyme (Characterization)
Characterization of BBa_K847004, the protocol for which can be found in the lab notebook, shows that bacteria containing the SOD gene in this experiment have better survivability against the reactive oxygen species produced by copper, including a larger number of final CFUs, as well as survivability at higher concentrations of copper total.
