IGEM:MIT/2006/System brainstorming

Post your project ideas here.

See the brainstorming of last year's team.

Rough Ideas

1. Lava Lamp (RS)
2. Minty Fresh (RS)
3. Diagnostic Bacteria (BC)
4. Analog Clock (AC)
5. Square Bacteria (JK)
6. Maze (JK)
7. Algae (JK)
8. Mitochondrial Liberation & Synthetic organelle(BC)
9. genome transfer (DE)
10. meso laundry list (DE)
11. rhodopsin (AC)
12. scrapped
13. wood eater (SS)
14. wood-o-genesis(SS)

Bacterial scents

Precursor	Enzyme	Compound	Scent	References
benzoic acid & S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)	S-adenosyl-L-methionine:benzoic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (BAMT)	methyl benzoate	pleasant smell
trans-cinnamic acid & S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)	?	methyl cinnamate	cinnamon?
jasmonic acid & S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)	S-adenosyl-L-methionine:jasmonic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (JMT)	methyl jasmonate	jasmine
salicylic acid (SA) & S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)	S-adenosyl-L-methionine:salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (SAMT)	methyl salicylate	wintergreen	[1, 2]

SAMT

C. breweri

• DNA and protein sequence known
• Expressed in E. coli
• Methyl salicylate has been extracted from spent medium of E. coli cells when medium was supplemented with salicylic acid
• Genbank AF133053
• also can use benzoic acid as a substrate but with lower efficiency
• crystal structure available

A. majus (Snapdragon)

• DNA and protein sequence known
• Expressed in E. coli
• Methyl salicylate has been extracted from spent medium of E. coli cells when medium was supplemented with salicylic acid
• also can use benzoic acid as a substrate but with lower efficiency
• Methyl benzoate has been extracted from spent medium of E. coli cells when medium was supplemented with benzoic acid

S. floribunda

• Genbank AJ308570

A belladonna

• Genbank AB049752

JMT

• A. thaliana AY008434

BAMT

• Snapdragon AF198492

References

1. Ross JR, Nam KH, D'Auria JC, and Pichersky E. S-Adenosyl-L-methionine:salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase, an enzyme involved in floral scent production and plant defense, represents a new class of plant methyltransferases. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1999 Jul 1;367(1):9-16. DOI:10.1006/abbi.1999.1255 |
2. Negre F, Kolosova N, Knoll J, Kish CM, and Dudareva N. Novel S-adenosyl-L-methionine:salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase, an enzyme responsible for biosynthesis of methyl salicylate and methyl benzoate, is not involved in floral scent production in snapdragon flowers. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2002 Oct 15;406(2):261-70. DOI:10.1016/s0003-9861(02)00458-7 |

Diagnostic bacteria

I'd like to be able to add a small number of diagnostic bacteria into a larger culture to detect the presence of cells containing engineered devices in the culture. Presumably there would be BB DNA floating around from lysed bacteria (does it get cut up?). The diagnostic bacteria would need to responsd to BB DNA by glowing green or smelling minty fresh:) The response might be mediated by uptake of DNA into the diagnostic bacteria and then use the mixed connective site as a riboregulator or maybe have a membrane protein that binds specific DNA sequences and triggers a two component system. Very sketchy proposal right now. Unless we could find easy ways of doing this it would be a protein engineering project.