IGEM:Imperial/2010/Lab Work

LAB TEAMS

Our group has divided into three lab pairs in order to cope with the load of wet lab work. Each lab team will be responsible for the pathway indicated by the team's name while Wolfgang would act as a central co-ordinator. The co-ordinator would have the role ensuring all three groups are on schedule but also have a deep understanding of all components of the project. This will ensure that Wolfgang would be able to present the project with confidence in Boston (alongside with Ben).

• XylE team (Maddie and Nicolas)
• Vectors team (Kyasha and Kirill)
• Surface Protein team (Harriet and Florian)

Lab supervisor: Wolfgang

DRY LAB WISH LIST

Parameters to be obtained

• rate of production of Dioxygenase and TEV in B.sub

Research

Please, someone have a look at one of the tasks below in your free time:

• Mechanism of ComE, ComD singalling:

Piotr: I have trouble making sense out of information given in papers. Help with this one very much appreciated.

Understanding so far:

ComD + CSP <-> ComD-P (Autophosphorylation)

ComD-P + ComE -> ComE-P + ComD

Objective: Describe how ComD works. Does it phospohrylate continously after AIP binding or is it rather 1 binding → 1 phosphorylation. What is the slowest reaction step?

Relevant papers looked at:

1. Et al. Martin mentions some details on signalling.
2. et al. KnutsenMentions that 10ng ml^(-1) is the concentration of CSP required for activating ComD but says nothing more than that?

Other stuff to look at: If precise info on ComD is not available, maybe look for papers on the family of receptors that ComD belongs to: histidine-kinase receptors

Please update what you have read (even if useless) so we don't keep reading the same papers all over again.