Team:Goettingen

Homing Coli

Escherichia coli is a commonly used bacterial model organism. It has lots of beneficial traits, e.g. a short generation time and it can be easily manipulated. Most E. coli strains that are used in laboratories do not exhibit high motility. The crucial element for motility is the flagellum, which is rotated by a molecular motor within the cell wall. Consequently, these are reduced in cultivated E. coli strains.

Our goal is to create an E. coli strain with increased swimming motility on special agar plates. Therefore, we will overexpress regulators and parts of the E. coli flagellum in cultivated strains in order to enhance bacterial swimming ability. The fastest E. coli strains will be selected and further improved. At the same time we will then be able to create an effective motility-selection method.

Now, you are probably wondering what the advantage of a fast E. coli might be. The beneficial fast phenotype can be combined with the ability of this bacterium to sense specific compounds in their environments. Chemoreceptors enable it to move towards or along gradients of such substances. We will use PCR-based site directed mutagenesis on the E. coli TAR receptor. The combination of speed and chemotaxis allows us to identify E. coli strains, which can sense interesting compounds. Thereby, an easy method for the detection of pollutants, toxins or even tumors could be provided.

Clive S. Barker et al. (2004). Increased Motility of Escherichia coli by Insertion Sequence Element Integration into the Regulatory Region of the flhD Operon. Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 186: 7529-7537.

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary scientific area that has recently developed. It links various fields of science like biology, chemistry, physics, molecular genetics, informatics and engineering.

Due to this combination the relation of biological design and function can be investigated from an entirely new perspective. The previous approach was limited to the examination of a structure and its function and the attempt to explain how they correlate. Recently, the reverse strategy is applied. Biological parts are specifically designed and constructed according to a desired function. These parts are characterized by a standardized modular design that facilitates their handling. The subsequent introduction of the synthetic constructs to living cells can either cause the replacement of original cellular components or result in additional elements that act cooperatively or more or less autonomously (see fig. 1).


Nagarajan Nandagopal and Michael B. Elowitz. (2011). Synthetic Biology: Integrated Gene Circuits. SCIENCE, Vol. 333: 1244-1248.

Another very important and necessary feature of biological parts is orthogonality, which means in this context that independent devices can be combined unrestrictedly. This principle derives from the area of engineering and aims to alter subsystems, without impeding others.

This way cells can be modified as requested, resulting in a predictable behaviour. Among others, this technique can be beneficial for the effective production of certain substances, like biofuels or antibiotics.

News

04 May 2012, KWS SAAT AG is now Head Sponsor.

The iGEM-Göttingen team is happy to welcome the KWS SAAT AG as head sponsor! For more information click here.

04 April 2012, Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH is now Premium Sponsor.

The first sponsor of our iGEM team is the company Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH. For more information click here.