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Team:NCTU Formosa/Project
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Overall project
Our team invented an enzyme pathway for E. coli to produce butanol, which is closely related chemically to ethanol. However, the two extra carbon atoms and their attendant hydrogens let it be a higher energy value. In terms of storage and handling, it is less corrosive than ethanol and has several other advantages. Therefore, it may be a better substitution to ethanol as a biofuel.
The pathway starts at glucose, through glycolysis it will convert to pyruvate. Then the pyruvate goes through enzymatic process and produces isobutyraldehyde, which is toxic to the E.coli. To prevent the toxicity harming E.coli, we use the temperature regulation system.
The first part is The 37℃ part. Our team makes E. coli produce a lot of nontoxic 2-Ketoisovalerate. Afterwards we reduce the temperature to 30℃.The 30℃ part converts 2-ketoisovalerate to isobutyraldehyde at one blast. Then through simple process we get isobutanol, the potential biofuel in the future.
What worth mentioning is that our team adds various zinc fingers before each enzyme to increase the affinity and efficiency of gene expression. Also, we are planning to design a container to produce and concentrate isobutanol. NCTU_Formosa hopes to soon provide an affordable and “green” transportation fuel to the world!
Project Details
The 37℃ part
The 30℃ part
Result
ZINC FINGER
<b>A zinc finger is a kind of finger-shaped protein that containsone or more zincions to stabilize the structure. Proteins that contain zinc fingers(zinc finger protein) are the most common transcription factors in organisms. A transcription factor is a protein that binds to DNA and controls the expression of genes. The zinc finger proteins bindspecific DNA, RNA, or other molecules with the interaction of its domain and these molecules.
