Team:WITS-CSIR SA

A defining characteristic of humanity is the constantly evolving sophistication with which human beings communicate and store information. Biologically, data communication networks exist too. The transfer of data occurs via signalling molecules incorporated into highly regulated and integrated networks.Our goal is to construct a bacterial communication network that will allow a group of engineered bacteria to transport messages in a directed manner, with the final aim of completing location-based functional tasks.We have focused on one aspect of this network: the directed transport of the message-carrying “communication modules” within our biological network. These communication modules will take the form of bacteria, which can move over physical distances carrying information. We have achieved this through engineering the exogenously controlled chemotactic behaviour of bacteria using synthetic riboswitches to regulate the expression of the CheZ protein required for bacterial motility.