Attributions

1.We would like to thank iGEM Colombia Team 2011*. Their original idea of sensing a fungal plant pathogen through a system of two transgenic bacterial variants is extended our the actual project, facilitating and improving key aspects of part design and modeling. Their experience contributed not only with concepts and strategies, but also by aiding to prevent and/or address several issues and pitfalls we have come across in the development of our work. We want to briefly mention some aspects that makes our project different from the 2011's. The idea to use genetically modified bacteria to detect pathogen molecules in an early stage of pathogen invasion is maintained this year, however, no parts from the previous project were used in this year project. iGEM Colombia team 2011 aimed to detect coffee rust fungus Hemileia vastatrix only. This year's team extends the idea of pathogen detection to detect also a bacterial pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum, which is a vascular pathogen of tomato Solanum lycopersicum and potato Solanum tuberosum, as well as other crop plants. Another key feature introduced this year is the toxin-antitoxin modules which will be used to control the bacterial population density, prevent horizontal gene transfer and plasmid curing (in an antibiotic free strategy).

The full list of team members can be found at https://2011.igem.org/Team:Colombia/Team.

2.The protocol for the persisters issolation we used is from the research work of Silvia Cañas (S. Cañas et al., manuscript in preparation, 2012). We thank Juan Manuel Pedraza, Silvia Restrepo and Sivia Cañas for lending us the protocol.

3.We want to thank Lina Cabal for her help and advices to develop the layout of this page.

4.Special thanks to Silvia Restrepo; her help, advices and accompaniment have been invaluable for this team.

5.Special thanks to [http://medmicro.wisc.edu/people_faculty_profile.php?id=egruby&view=intro Dr. Edward Ruby] and [http://labs.medmicro.wisc.edu/ruby/members/ziegelhoffer/index.html Dr. Eva Ziegelhoffer] for gently providing the Aliivibrio fischeri ES114.

6.Thanks also to [http://www.med.und.edu/microbiology/thomas-hill.cfm Dr. Thomas M. Hill] and [http://www.biology.neu.edu/faculty03/lewis03.html Dr. Kim Lewis] for providing us the E. coli strains: TH1269 and TH1268.

7. We thank [http://lamfu/HOME/Home.html LAMFU] [http://cimic/Investigadores/jenny_dussan.htm CIMIC] and [http://biofisica.uniandes.edu.co/ Biophysics] labs for hosting our team!!! Thanks for the patience and collaboration!!

8. For their collaboration with the organization of the Forum Research in Colombia: Obtaining Research Permits (Human Practice), Contracts for Access to Genetic Resources and Biological Collections, we want to thank: - Prof. Gonzalo Andrade, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. - Prof. Silvia Restrepo, Universidad de los Andes - Adriana Sierra, Public Relations, Universidad de los Andes. - Luisa Fernanda Bastidas, Public Relations, Universidad de los Andes. - Paola Pardo, Universidad de los Andes - Juan Gabriel Sutachan, Universidad de los Andes - Adriana Rosillo, Universidad de los Andes - Audiovisual Production – DTI, Universidad de los Andes - Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de los Andes

9.For their collaboration with the Social Schools and Coffee growers activities (Human Practice), we want to thank: - Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia - Dr. Fernando Gast, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros - Dr. Luis Francisco Useche Barbosa, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros - Mr. Leonardo Rojas, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros - Coffee Growers from Gualivá Region (Sasaima and Supatá) - Mrs. Patricia Méndez, Institución Educativa Rural San Bernardo, Sasaima. - Students and educational community of Institución Educativa Rural San Bernardo, Sasaima.

10.Special thanks to Dr. Felipe Munoz Giraldo and all his research group to provide us computational resources (http://ingenieria.uniandes.edu.co/profesores/fmunoz/doku.php).