12

Today we continued brainstorming and came up with a few new ideas but had to scrap a few that are not feasible.

1. Spores & rain

a. Need an application, not just making rain

b. Empty virus capsid instead of spore?

2. ~~Mucin on plants<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>~~

a. On surface of leaves, yeast could produce mucin coat if it gets very hot to avoid water loss

b. How does light interact with mucin? Could have opposite, heating effect.

3. Eutrophication

a. Aerobic bacterium that turns nitrate and ammonia into N gas.

b. Special lipids prevent poisonous intermediate chemicals from killing the cells because reaction compartmentalized

c. Very slow growth rate (2 weeks doubling time)

d. Can increase growth rate or express enzymes in E. Coli

e. About 10 enzymes involved in the pathway; could just express a few

f. How many enzymes? Can they be expressed in E. Coli?

4. Waste water

a. Estrogen compounds

b. Coupling a sensor to degradation process

c. Lacases can degrade one of the compounds. Not sure about how to target the others

d. Bio-sequestration?

5. ~~Anti-freeze protein in plants<o:p></o:p>~~

a. Need license with bacteria to make tumours

6. ~~pH sensor and regulator<o:p></o:p>~~

a. Bacteria balance internal pH but not really external

b. Moss can turn pH of water acidic in bogs.

c. Alkaline?

d. Huge problem of acidity in the ocean – crustaceans cant build shells

7. Solar cell

a. Bacterial rhodopsin?

b. Hydrogenase and nitrogenase

8. Nematodes

a. Secrete volatile organic compounds from stable bacteria

b. Olfactory chemotaxis to attract nematodes

c. Need parasitic nematode specific killing – research this

d. Silence genes with RNAi by feeding E. coli?

9. ~~Mining bacteria<o:p></o:p>~~

a. Metal binding proteins

b. Bacterial catalyst?

10. Termite enzyme

a. Symbiosis between nematode and termite to convert wood cellulose into sugar