Team:UEA-JIC Norwich/Nittygritty

From 2011.igem.org


Making bacteria see.

We are planning to transform E.coli with the a new composite Biobrick. This will be formed of four existing Biobricks including Cph8, OmpR, Green Luciferase and Luciferin Recovery Enzyme.

Cph8 is a composite part formed of the Cph1 and Env Biobricks. Cph1 is a light sensing domain most sensitive to red light in the region of 660nm. When translated, light exposure inhibits the activity of the EnvZ histidine kinase domain. Thus, the kinase activity will only be active in the dark. When in this state, EnvZ phosphorylates the OmpR promoter to OmpR-P. This promoter is usually upstream of the OmpC gene. We are planning to place this promoter upstream of the luciferase and luciferase recovery enzyme Biobricks. Therefore, our cells will only luminesce in the dark!