Difference between revisions of "Team:DTU-Denmark/Description"

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<h2>Description</h2>
  <p class="fact">The total annual revenue from enzymes produced by <i>Aspergillus</i> spp. is 480 mio USD per year [3].</p>
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<p>Filamentous fungi are responsible for 50% of all industrially produced enzymes and 10% of all known bioactive compounds, therefore this multi-billion dollar industry is a big part of everyday life. Yet, while this is impressive, filamentous fungi can be utilized in the production of many other compounds (1)(2).<br><br>
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Whilst filamentous fungi are hugely important in industry, a disproportionately small number of iGEM teams have worked with this group of organisms.
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The 2018 DTU iGEM team Hyphae Hackers exploited filamentous fungi in their project but realized that the accessibility of parts was lacking severely compared to that of bacteria and yeasts (e.g. Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae). <br>
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In the 15 years of iGEM, 2754 teams have participated but until last year only 5 had worked in filamentous fungi, and these accounted for less than 5% of the promoters in the iGEM registry. <br>
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The lack of filamentous fungal parts, therefore, resulted in great difficulties for the 2018 DTU iGEM team with transforming the fungi and achieving the desired expression. While several promoter libraries exist for bacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as yeast and mammalian cells, there are currently no such libraries for filamentous fungi in the scientific literature (3).<br><br>
  
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The Technical University of Denmark harbors unique facilities and personnel with great expertise in working with synthetic biology in filamentous fungi. The department furthermore has a fermentation core which allows fungi to be examined in multiple scales and under differing conditions as well as control of the pH and monitoring of CO2-production during growth.<br><br>
  
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Promoters are essential in the production of metabolites, as they allow for the up or down regulation of gene expression. The lack of fungal parts as well as the resources of the department inspired this year’s team to produce a library of synthetic promoters for filamentous fungi and other eukaryotic organisms. We built a piece of software which compared the genomes of several different species of Aspergillus to determine sequence conservation and create a library of synthetic promoters. The library provides promoters of different strengths that give consistent results between batches and scales.<br><br>
  
  
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Following discussions with several scientists and companies the team decided on a strategy that would supply future iGEM teams with the tools required to do synthetic biology in Aspergillus as well as close a gap in scientific literature, making our project useful in iGEM, academia, and industry.
  
<h2>Description</h2>
 
<p>Filamentous fungi are used as cell factories for approximately 28% of all known bioreactive microbial metabolites [1]. With their ability to increase or decrease the expression of a metabolite, promoters are essential in the production of bioproducts.
 
Several promoter libraries exist for bacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as yeast and mammalian cells. Nevertheless, there are currently no such libraries for filamentous fungi in the scientific literature.<br><br>
 
Our project aims to create a constitutive promoter library for filamentous fungi and other eukaryotic organisms that provide promoters of different strengths that give reproducible results between batches and scales.
 
  
  
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<h2>Inspiration</h2>
 
<p>The inspiration for the project came from several places that together created the goal we have now. First, the iGEM team from <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:DTU-Denmark" target="_blank">DTU in 2018</a> worked with filamentous fungi and it became clear that only very few parts in the registry have been used in filamentous fungi. This resulted in many difficulties, getting the system to work and getting anything expressed. This year we will fill the hole in the registry with parts that work in filamentous fungi and we will provide information on how to successfully work with filamentous fungi, including protoplastation, transformation, and product assays.<br>
 
 
The second inspiration came from our supervisors’ colleagues in academia and contacts in the industry. Here promoter libraries are very useful, but the promoters in literature is limited and spread out. We saw a hole that we could fill and provide a valuable product to researchers across the world.<br><br>
 
 
Lastly, at the Technical University of Denmark, we have unique facilities and personnel who have expertise in working with synthetic biology in filamentous fungi. The research being done in filamentous fungi, most specifically Aspergillus allows us to attempt this project as these organisms are harder to work with than bacteria. Furthermore, the department has a fermentation core that we can use to examine the strength of the promotes in multiple scales and in differing conditions.<br>
 
 
 
Taking all of this together, we see that our project is a combination between introducing a new organism to iGEM with the tools required to do synthetic biology, filling a hole in the literature, and the unique opportunity we have.
 
 
 
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Revision as of 09:03, 20 October 2019

Project Inspiration and Description

Several promoter libraries exist for bacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as yeast and mammalian cells. Nevertheless, there are currently no such libraries for filamentous fungi in the scientific literature. That's where we enter the scene.

Results Safety Collaborations Model Design Human Practices Experiments Attributions Model Attributions Collaborations Human Practices Results Safety Experiments Design Attributions Collaborations Human Practices Results Safety Experiments Design Model

Description

Filamentous fungi are responsible for 50% of all industrially produced enzymes and 10% of all known bioactive compounds, therefore this multi-billion dollar industry is a big part of everyday life. Yet, while this is impressive, filamentous fungi can be utilized in the production of many other compounds (1)(2).

Whilst filamentous fungi are hugely important in industry, a disproportionately small number of iGEM teams have worked with this group of organisms. The 2018 DTU iGEM team Hyphae Hackers exploited filamentous fungi in their project but realized that the accessibility of parts was lacking severely compared to that of bacteria and yeasts (e.g. Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
In the 15 years of iGEM, 2754 teams have participated but until last year only 5 had worked in filamentous fungi, and these accounted for less than 5% of the promoters in the iGEM registry.
The lack of filamentous fungal parts, therefore, resulted in great difficulties for the 2018 DTU iGEM team with transforming the fungi and achieving the desired expression. While several promoter libraries exist for bacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as yeast and mammalian cells, there are currently no such libraries for filamentous fungi in the scientific literature (3).

The Technical University of Denmark harbors unique facilities and personnel with great expertise in working with synthetic biology in filamentous fungi. The department furthermore has a fermentation core which allows fungi to be examined in multiple scales and under differing conditions as well as control of the pH and monitoring of CO2-production during growth.

Promoters are essential in the production of metabolites, as they allow for the up or down regulation of gene expression. The lack of fungal parts as well as the resources of the department inspired this year’s team to produce a library of synthetic promoters for filamentous fungi and other eukaryotic organisms. We built a piece of software which compared the genomes of several different species of Aspergillus to determine sequence conservation and create a library of synthetic promoters. The library provides promoters of different strengths that give consistent results between batches and scales.

Following discussions with several scientists and companies the team decided on a strategy that would supply future iGEM teams with the tools required to do synthetic biology in Aspergillus as well as close a gap in scientific literature, making our project useful in iGEM, academia, and industry.



(1) J. Berdy, “Bioreactive Microbial Metabolites” J. antibiot, vol. 58. no. 1, pp. 1-26, 2005.

The logos of our three biggest supporters, DTU Blue Dot, Novo Nordisk fonden and Otto Mønsted fonden The logos of all of our sponsors, DTU, BioNordica, Eurofins Genomics, Qiagen, NEB New England biolabs, IDT Integrated DNA technologies and Twist bioscience