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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.

Contents 1 Safety 1.1 Safety of Project 1.2 Safety Rules 1.3 Ideas for the Future

Safety

• Please use this page to answer the safety questions posed on the safety page.
• We are still planning in detail about the experiments. These proposals are not the final ones.

Safety of Project

Q1: Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety, or environmental safety?

A1: Flies are dealt in the same experimental condition with the modified E.coli.
We will collaborate with the laboratory staff of the university in order to decrease the accidental release of the flies to highlight other risk factors.

Safety Rules

Q2: Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes, did you document these issues in the Registry? how did you manage to handle the safety issue? How could other teams learn from your experience? Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution? If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project? If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?

A2: We currently don't think they will raise any safety issues. And we obey the rules of Laboratory of Science Communication and Bioethics, which belongs to the Kyoto University Graduate School of Bioscience in charge of making all the biological researches carried out in our institution transparent to the public.

Ideas for the Future

Q3: Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?

A3: It is really tough to answer to this question..we'll continue discussing on this fundamental problem..

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