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Team:Tianjin/Modeling/HGTBass
From 2012.igem.org
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Background
Genetic pollution is the term of genetics in which the genetic information is transferred in to the organisms where it is not needed or where this information never existed before. This flow of genetic information is usually undesired and cannot be controlled. The flow of genetic information usually takes place between the genetically modified organisms into the organisms which are not genetically modified.
Unlike other forms of pollution, genetic contamination has the potential to be a problem that multiplies as plants and microorganisms grow and reproduce. Therefore, environmental damage caused by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) cannot be confined to the original habitat. This briefing considers what is known about these risks and the evidence that is emerging from experimental and commercial growing of GE crops.
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), also lateral gene transfer (LGT) or transposition refers to the transfer of genetic material between organisms other than vertical gene transfer.
HGT is the primary reason for bacterial antibiotic resistance. Genes that are responsible for antibiotic resistance in one species of bacteria can be transferred to another species of bacteria, subsequently arming the antibiotic resistant genes' recipient against antibiotics.
Due to the increasing amount of evidence suggesting the importance of these phenomena for evolution molecular biologists such as Peter Gogarten have described HGT as "A New Paradigm for Biology".
Our Problem
There are two ways for wild type bacteria to have some exogenous gene. To make it more convenient to distinguish between the two type of bacteria, we call the bacteria containing exogenous gene the E bacteria. Similarly, the wild type bacteria are called the W ones. We want to study how the exogenous gene horizontally transferred from to other bacteria and how the number of W bacteria and E bacteria changed with time.
Our Experiment Design
We studied the how the number of E. bacteria increased with mutation and HGT. This is an important reason for the genetic pollution.
In our experiment, we have cultivated some W bacteria in the substrate whose initial number is N0w. At the same time, we induce E bacteria, the same bacteria as the W ones but contains the exogenous gene on their plasmid. The initial number of the evil bacteria is N0e.
We will test the number of E and W bacteria every other ∆t, while ∆t is the generation time. We assume the generation time of the W and E bacteria are identical because they belong to the same species.
