Team:Clemson/Project

Signaling Guider Bacteria

Introduction

Overall, our project goal is to create a three-component bacterial system: signaling, biosurfactant, and PCB degradation. First is an expansion of the UT-Tokyo 2011 Team’s bioremediation specific system, consisting of guider and worker bacteria. The system (currently activated by UV light) causes the guider bacteria to produce Aspartate A, which is converted to L-Asp, a natural chemoattractant for E. coli. Thus, both guiders and workers will respond when the bacteria come into contact with the substrate. However, the reaction producing L-Asp is reversible and would cause the bacteria to no longer stay with the substrate. In order to circumvent this, UT-Tokyo created a system with a chromosomal cheZ knockout E. coli stain and initiated substrate-dependent cheZ expression from a plasmid. Thus, in the presence of the substrate, the lambda phage repressor cI is produced, binding to the cI-repressed promoter, inhibiting cheZ expression, and halting bacterial movement. In order for this system to work for our purposes, we are to replace the UV light promoter with a PCB specific promoter. Ideally we would like to implement this system in magnetotactic bacteria since PCBs are insoluble particles that remain in the sediments of Lake Hartwell, we will need the guiders to dive to the bottom. The workers in this system will be comprised of two genetically different bacteria: one programmed to produce a biosurfactant and the other to degrade the PCBs to less harmful byproducts.