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From 2011.igem.org

Welcome to the Washington University in St. Louis IGEM Wiki page! Our site is still under construction and changing frequently. Our preliminary abstract can be found under "Project," our lab notebook (updated daily) under "Notebook," and our safety report under "Safety."

The 2011 WashU iGEM team is researching the capability of baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to produce the compounds β-carotene and β-ionone. By manipulating the enzymatic pathways associated with the compounds and incorporating them into yeast, we hope to find an efficient means of infusing vitamin A, a derivative of β-carotene, into food items. Our research may ultimately benefit the production healthy food supplements much similar to "golden rice". β-ionone, also derived from β-carotene, is an aroma compound that contributes to the perfume of roses and other fragrant flowers. Production of β-ionone in a widely-available organism has the potential to improve the efficiency of obtaining this fragrance for the perfume industry.

In a nutshell, our Project involve 5 major components

1) Using PCR to attach a restriction site and yeast plasmid homology to our four unique cassettes (selective markers). We will then run the PCR products through gels to check for product size.

2) Using PCR to attach a restriction site and yeast plasmid homology to the genes involved in our enzymatic pathway.

3) Performing a restriction digest and ligation process to connect the genes and cassettes together such that we get Homology---Gene---Restriction + Restriction---cassette---Homology. (note when the restriction sites should interact in such a way that they lose their ability to act as restriction sites)

4) Transforming our final gene/cassette product into yeast. Then through yeast sporulation and mating, we hope to successfully create transformed yeast that can produce β-carotene and β-ionone.

5) Using assays, we ultimately test for the production of β-carotene and β-ionone and the efficiency of this pathway.