Team:Macquarie Australia

Hello from the 2011 Macquarie University iGEM group!

This year's research team will be expanding upon the research conducted by last year's iGEM team. This project involves the production of a phytochrome light switch that jumps between two different light states, acting as a reporter for ambient light conditions. We've nicknamed our work 'the switch-a-roo' as our phytochromes hop back and forth between green and blue states.

Here are some quick links to help you get started:

• An overview of our Project


• Head on over to our Data Page for a summary of our registered parts


• Or meet the Team!


• The requirements for each medal grade can be seen at the bottom of this page

Phytochromes are ubiquitous proteins that allow an organism to sense light. These proteins have evolved in unique environments to sense light intensity in different colour ranges. This experiment focuses on constructing a biological switch that uses phytochromes from Deinococcus radiodurans and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The coupling of heme oxygenase supplies our phytochrome proteins with biliverdin, allowing for the self-assembly of the switch within host systems. The switch is the first stage of a two component light sensor and when expressed at high level, there is a noticeable colour change of the cell when it is activated by light.

Medal Progress

Bronze	Silver	Gold
Registration of Team	Characterisation of our working Biobrick	Improvement of previous Biobricks
Judging form	Information entered onto Main Page of Registry
Project wiki
Poster and Talk for Asia Jamboree
Submission of parts to Registry
Submission of Biobrick to Registry [number needed]