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Team:Kyoto
From 2011.igem.org
Carnivorous E.coli
We don't regard E.coli as an animal because they don't hunt or eat. Then, if it could hunt and eat, will we think it is an animal? We will create carnivorous E.coli this year. Carnivorous E.coli can prey on insects when they are hungry. To explain our project concretely, we made an animation.
In this animation, carnivorous E.coli takes four actions; hunger, luminescence, predation and digestion.
Hunger
It is a burden for the E.coli to emit light. This can be reduced by using nitrogen regulatory proteins, NtrB and NtrC, which activate a certain promoter under the condition that supply of nitrogen is not enough.
Luminescence
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.
Predation
Carnivorous E.coli traps insects by mucilage. Inducing gum gene family, it secrets xanthan gum.
Digestion
Digestion is accomplished by protease and chitinase. We will induce these enzymes and assay them.
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