Project status

Currently, we have been able to detect light-emission from our Synechocystis cells, however we still need to analyze circadian expression of the genes. Furthermore, we still have not been able to assemble the substrate production enzymes to the susceptibility plasmid. We hope that with out new strategy we will be successful. Once we are able to integrate the substrate production genes we may be able to assess the desired behavior of our system and analyze its impact on the chassis.

After having the complete system we will have to see if we can achieve visible lighting with Luxilla. If not, we will try optimizing codon usage for Synechocystis and/or changing promoters.

Biological lighting

Synechocystis PCC6803 has been proposed as the green E. coli. This chassis can be used in industry to achieve more sustainable processes.

Context in Synbio

Since we started developing this project we have realized the importance of biological context, specially when functionality is a desired aspect of the behavioral output of the system. While in one chassis a Biobrick may provide a novel function, in another it may become a practical application for society.

We have seen first hand the difficulties associated with this aspect of current progress in SynBio. By lacking standarized and proven methodologies and relying on previous uncharacterized work. We urge the Synbio community to address this aspect by encouraging the use and characterization of different chassis. It is of utmost importance that BioBrick designed for the chassis must be characterized in the chassis or they may prove fallible. The same can be said about failed experiences with BioBricks that are not reported.