From 2011.igem.org
Summary
We created new E.coli which hunts and eats insects.
As such we named it Carnivorous E.coli.
Carnivorous E.coli emits light when it is hungry. This will attract insects to it.
Then, it secretes a viscous substance to catch the insects.
The insects caught are digested by the protease and chitinase in the secretion.
Long story short, our Carnivorous E.coli can hunt!
It is a burden for the E.coli to emit light.
However, this burden can be reduced by using the nitrogen regulatory proteins, NtrB and NtrC, to activate a certain promoter when the supply of nitrogen is not enough.
There are many ways to attract bugs, for instance using pheromone, but it is difficult for E.coli to synthesize complex compounds like pheromone.
Carnivorous E.coli emits light and attracts bugs like glowworms by using Bioluciferase from
2010 Cambridge.
An insect body is covered with a hard integument containing mainly chitin. To decompose the integument, we used ChiA genes, which encode chitinase. In order to measure the chitinase activity of the culture supernatant, we evaluated the effects of the medium and cell growth.
Achievement
Because synthetic biology is a comparatively new way of understanding life, we will develop this area much further. But ,in fact, Japanese high school students have few chances to know it. At the same time, this area entails problems of bioethics and we must consider these problems. We want to offer high school students chances to think them. That's why we targeted them and performed these activities.
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