Team:TMU-Tokyo

Project Abstract

Formaldehyde is a common harmful chemical, and it has a bad effect in relatively low concentration. (For example, in agricultural chemicals, in disinfectant at hospitals and in paint of building materials) Also, since formaldehyde is mass-produced in factories, it is highly possible to exceed over the permissible amount in the environment. This year, in Japan, the detection of formaldehyde in Tone river became an issue. We planed to create E.coli with an ability to　detect and detoxify formaldehyde. named Chef Ant E.coli. About detection, we try to visualize formaldehyde by ligating regulated promoter, frmR and GFP. Moreover we plan to overexpress two enzymes in Chef Ant E.coli. First, formaldehyde dehydrogenase decomposes formaldehyde to formic acid. The gene of formaldehyde dehydrogenase is from Pseudomonas Putida. Second, formic acid dehydrogenase converts formic acid to CO2 and H2O. The gene of formic acid dehydrogenase is from Methylbacterium extorquens.