Team:Paris Bettencourt/Experiments/YFP TetR diffusion experiments

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Team IGEM Paris 2011

Testing nanotubes with the YFP concentrator system

Summary

All our experiments followed our microscopy protocol when not specified otherwise.

Results for the YFP concentrator:

  • We've done E.coli to B.subtilis diffusion experiments (with negative results)
  • We've done B.subtilis to B.subtilis diffusion experiments (with negative results)


Design overview

YFP:TetR/TetO array system

More information on the design here.

Emitter & receiver constructs in B.subtilis (receiver in plasmid)

Emitter construct in E.coli - Receiver construct in B.subtilis (plasmid)

We succeeded to integrate the TetO Array in B. subtilis with the multihost episomal pHM3 plasmid.
Experiments of E. coli (pFX234 plasmid, D. Lane strains) to B. subtilis (TetO Array, pHM3) to follow an eventual fluorescence diffusion by nanotube has been tried.

At the beginning of the movie : t = 0 min
Mix of E. coli (YFP:tetR) and B. subtilis (TetO Array) - Trans image
Mix of E. coli (YFP:tetR) and B. subtilis (TetO Array) - Fluo image
At the end of the movie : t = 125 min
Mix of E. coli (YFP:tetR) and B. subtilis (TetO Array) - Trans image
Mix of E. coli (YFP:tetR) and B. subtilis (TetO Array) - Fluo image

Movie : Experiment of mixed YFP:tetR (E. coli) & TetO Array (B. subtilis)

We cannot detect any tetR-YFP foci in the receiver cells specific of YFP concentration on the TetO Array. This suggests that the YFP-tetR fusion protein from E. coli cannot diffuse into B. subtilis through the potential nanotubes.

Conclusions

We investigated the presence of nanotubes by exposing our receiver TetO array in B.subtilis to the YFP:TetR fusion protein emitter, both in E.coli and B.subtilis. In both case, there was no appearance of bright fluorescence spots as expected with our characterization of the TetO array. So like in T7 RNA polymerase diffusion experiments we have no evidence of nanotube existence yet. We are currently exploring different culture conditions that could possibly trigger nanotubes formation. We are also testing different analytical methods.