Team:ETH Zurich/Biology/Detector

Cigarette smoke contains a lot of different toxic and carcinogenic components. In biology a lot of sensors for such components exist mostly to induce their degradation. One is the acetaldeyhde system in aspergillus nidulans, the activator AlcR binds to it operator site if acetaldeyhde is present [1]. An other one is the xylene sensing system in Pseudomonas putida [2] and the one for styrene in Pseudomonas sp. , both also work as activators [3].

Acetaldehyde Sensor:

Molecular mechanism of SmoColi with acetaldehyde sensor

Xylene Sensor:

Molecular mechanism of SmoColi with xylene sensor.

References

[1] [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2834622 R. Locklngton, C. Scazzocchio, D. Sequeval, M. Mathieu, B. Felenbok: Regulation of alcR, the positive regulatory gene of the ethanol utilization regulon of Aspergillus nidulans, Mol Microbiol., 1987, 1:275-81]

[2] [http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/2/748 Sven Panke, Juan M. Sánchez-Romero, and Víctor de Lorenzo: Engineering of Quasi-Natural Pseudomonas putida Strains for Toluene Metabolism through an ortho-Cleavage Degradation Pathway, Appl Environ Microbiol, 1998, 64: 748-751]

[3] [http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/6/2032 Sven Panke, Bernard Witholt, Andreas Schmid, and Marcel G. Wubbolts: Towards a Biocatalyst for (S)-Styrene Oxide Production: Characterization of the Styrene Degradation Pathway of Pseudomonas sp. Strain VLB120, Appl Environ Microbiol, 1998, 64: 2032-2043]