Team:UIUC-Illinois

Our project, E. chiver, drew inspiration from the commonly used CRIM system, a series of plasmids that allows the user to integrate constructs into lambdoid phage sites common to many bacterial chromosomes. Our E. chiver system adds several elements yielding new applications. Our team designed two E. chiver constructs utilizing Lambda and P21 machinery. Each can in theory be used to shuttle a plasmid construct between two forms: a single chromosomal insert and a high copy number plasmid. In their current designs the systems must function separately, but possible routes have been identified by our team to make the co-functioning of these systems possible. We can see elements of our project being used in drug delivery systems as a method to keep a gene of interest dormant unless in the correct condition/location, and with further exploration into the co-functioning routes it may be used to create a ‘bacterial filing cabinet’.