Team:SZU-China/Prospect
Prospect
Currently, as the world grows increasingly interconnected, the spread of invasive plants gets more and more rampant, bringing a great disaster to the local environment as well as the economy. However, we found that most people were lack awareness of invasive plants and often neglected such individual environmental destroyers. Hence, public education and engagement are indispensable to remove those destructive weeds.
In 2019, SZU-China integrated a set of precise treatments specifically designed to solve invasive plant problems from both technical and public educational perspectives. SZU-China launched several activities to fight GREEN for more green and developed a precise project specifically for M. micrantha via RNAi technology this year. Our results showed that it was a great success. Therefore, based on this, we thought it was not only for M. micrantha control but also applied to various invasive plants. The technical routes are as follows:
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Finding the target and essential metabolic gene of the invasive plants
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Synthesizing the relevant RNAi molecules
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Manufacturing the specific herbicide and applying
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Using our APPLET to strengthen public awareness
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Holding the photographic competition, calling for everyone to find the invasive plants in person
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Filming documentaries for publicity
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Launching volunteer activities to remove such invasive plant together and so forth
This year, we were going to do something meaningful instead of just finishing a competition. We wanted to show everyone in the world that our environment is urgently in need of help in dealing with the invasive species. Besides, we also provided a specific project as an example to show everyone how to solve such problems in an environmentally friendly way through synthetic biology. Here, we are calling for everyone to support the real green all together!
For more information, click Design , Pubic Engagement & Education, Applet.
The first step to evaluate our project is by the “SWOT” analysis, which is used by many companies. SWOT stands for "Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats" and is necessary for realizing an objective by considering risks. Based on the internal analysis (strength/weakness) you optimize your market position. The external analysis (opportunities/threats) gives a cost-benefit ratio of the project.
(Click the words to see more)
Strengths(S):
High specificity
High efficiency
Applicability
Economy
Weaknesses(W):
Low acceptance
Synthetic biology
Opportunities(O):
Few competitors
Strong demand
Threats(T):
Easy to replicate
The field of bio-agriculture is a crucial area supported by the government of Shenzhen. Especially in biopesticides.
China's GDP is increasing year by year, and people are more willing to pay for some new products.
With the improvement of national quality, it is easier to accept and understand biopesticides.
Fermentation technology is becoming more and more mature, which can effectively reduce the cost of fermentation. At the same time, there are many technologies to support our Micrancide improvement, which is conducive to the production of our Micrancide.
Economic feasibility can be evaluated by calculating the cost of biological pesticides. For that reason, we calculate the material cost of a single bottle and the cost of our Micrancide using per square meter. In this calculation we neglect the cost of each bottle of Micrancide.
Table 1. Economic Evaluation
Fig.1 The encapsulation of Micrancide
Mikania micrantha is distributed in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands, Mauritius, Australia, countries in central and South America, and the south of the United States. Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Guangxi, China. In most areas above, it belongs to invasive plants and destroys the local ecological environment.
Fig.2 World Distribution of Mikania micrantha (Cited from Wikipedia)
It means that there is a great demand for Micrancide in the world, and our product has a great development market.
Mikania micrantha is widely distributed in all townships or street offices in ten districts of Shenzhen city. By the end of 2003, Mikania micrantha had damaged more than 5000 hectares and killed more than 300 hectares of trees. Causing severe damage to mountain forests, urban parks, green spaces, orchards, etc.
We learned from the interview(Community) that the amount invested in the management of Mikania micrantha in Shenzhen every year is 10 million yuan. Since 2006, Shenzhen has invested more than 100 million yuan in the management of Mikania micrantha. However, the governance situation is not ideal. From the above, we can infer that our target market is a market with great development potential.
Invasive plants seriously damage the ecological environment and threaten biodiversity. They are also leading to substantial economic losses: 1.36% of China's GDP. Among them, 13 dominant invasive species cause economic losses of more than 50 billion yuan every year in China.
SZU-China iGEM team has explored an experimental scheme for stabilizing the production of target shRNA. People can silence different pathways of different plants only by altering the DNA sequence, and ultimately make the plants unable to survive. This method can help us reduce economic losses, protect the environment better, and have an ample market space.
Based on the above analysis, our Micrancide has high competitiveness in the market, and have many non-replicable advantages, and the overall market development space is also ample. Wish our Micrancide can better benefit society.
