Team:Peking/Project/Communication

Introduction

As a significant component in signal transduction, cell-cell communication has fueled numerous biological researches; among them is the discovery of quorum sensing signals, e.g. AHL and AIP. During the last decade, many insightful and valuable synthetic biology projects have been constructed to perform complex functions based on cell-cell communication, e.g. pattern formation and synthetic ecosystem.

However, it is very difficult for these systems to synchronize the cells using quorum sensing signals due to the short-range interactions of chemicals. But an even more serious issue is the basis of synthetic systems on quorum sensing signals, which are hard to reset because of the chemicals are easily saturated in many cases. Additionally, it is difficult to achieve inter-species or inter-kingdom communication through quorum sensing signals due to the fact that such molecules may have problems crossing the membrane, or they may have side effects on the endogenous system.

As demonstrated above (data on Characterization), the ultrasensitive Luminesensor is able to respond to very dim light and still maintain a high dynamic range. That encouraged Peking iGEM to explore the possibility of cell-cell communication through light. Similar to other universal signals, the delivery of light signals is not limited by diffusion or by variation of organisms across species or even kingdoms. By carefully selecting the lux operon as the light sender module (details on Design), Peking iGEM successfully demonstrated that Luminesensor is able to sense the blue light of the lux operon. This is the first time that light-communication between cells has been achieved without direct physical contact. As a proof of concept, a video was recorded to reveal the timing-course change of the sender and the receiver cells. Quantitative data was also obtained to evaluate the efficiency of light-communication (see Results). Peking iGEM realized that light-communication between cells would rise a new generation of optogenetics and had probed into the future application of light-communication (see Future).