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Who We Are
Amanda Chang
"A watched gel never runs"
Track Selection: New Application
Abstract
Our project, E. chiver, drew inspiration from the commonly used CRIM system, a series of plasmids that allows the user to integrate constructs into lambdoid phage sites common to many bacterial chromosomes. Our E. chiver system adds several elements yielding new applications. Our team designed two E. chiver constructs utilizing Lambda and P21 machinery. Each can in theory be used to shuttle a plasmid construct between two forms: a single chromosomal insert and a high copy number plasmid. In their current designs the systems must function separately, but possible routes have been identified by our team to make the co-functioning of these systems possible. We can see elements of our project being used in drug delivery systems as a method to keep a gene of interest dormant unless in the correct condition/location, and with further exploration into the co-functioning routes it may be used to create a ‘bacterial filing cabinet’.
Project Goal:
To create a system that allows a construct to be expressed at a high copy number when induced, but then file back into the chromosome as a stable integrant for energetically favorable storage. The ultimate end goal is to create a bacterial filing system, E. chiver, which allows the coexistence of multiple constructs with their copy number and integration tied to a unique inducer.
Illustrative Overview of Goal:
Analogy:
A simple analogy for our E. chiver project is a filing cabinet. The following are the basic components of the system and their workplace analogues.
Construct = Shuttle Plasmid = File
Gene of interest = File Contents
Chromosome = Filing Cabinet
Background/Tools:
Luckily for us, the basic machinery we need for our E. chiver design already exists. The machinery is that of the Lambdiod phage family (i.e. λ, P21, P22, HK022, φ80), as well as the conditional R6K origin of replication and its trans-acting factor pir. The following are basic descriptions of how these parts function.
Lambdoid phage machinery: Our main interest is the phage proteins excisionase (Xis) and integrase (Int), as well as the phage genetic element attP (phage attachment site) and the bacterial genetic element attB (bacterial attachment site). Xis and Int are responsible for the site-specific recombination event between attP and attB. The recombination event is reversible. The direction depends on the combination of proteins being expressed (see diagram below).
R6K origin and pir: The pir gene encodes the trans-acting protein that allows replication of an R6K origin2. When pir is turned on, a plasmid containing the R6K origin will be allowed to replicate, but when pir is not expressed the plasmid becomes a suicide vector (cannot replicate). The CRIM system takes advantage of this by placing an attP site in the R6K vector. When pir is off, the vector must insert into the chromosome or be lost.
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