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Team:Imperial College London/Project Auxin Future
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| - | <p>1. Computationalliy model the long-term uptake and distribution pattern of IAA inside roots. A mathematic model will be developed to quantitatively describe the relationship between root growth and IAA concentration level inside the plant. The model will be intergrated into the IAA metabolism pathway and cell elongation process to give a more accurate prediction of the response of plants to a certain amount of IAA.</p> | + | <p><b>1. Computationalliy model the long-term uptake and distribution pattern of IAA inside roots.</b><p> A mathematic model will be developed to quantitatively describe the relationship between root growth and IAA concentration level inside the plant. The model will be intergrated into the IAA metabolism pathway and cell elongation process to give a more accurate prediction of the response of plants to a certain amount of IAA.</p> |
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| - | <p><b> | + | <p><b>2. Testing and implementation in the field. </b></p> |
| - | <p> | + | <p>We have to ensure that the IAA secreted by our bacteria is beneficial for the environment and in now way detrimental to existing plants and ecosystems. For this, field trials will need to be conducted in much later stages of the project. |
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Revision as of 23:57, 21 September 2011
Module 2: Auxin Xpress
Auxin, or Indole 3-acetic acid (IAA), is a plant growth hormone which is produced by several soil bacteria. We have taken the genes encoding the IAA-producing pathway from Pseudomonas savastanoi and expressed them in Escherichia coli. Following chemotaxis towards the roots and uptake by the Phyto Route module, IAA expression will promote root growth with the aim of improving soil stability.
Future Work
To carry on the work on the Auxin-Xpress module, there are a number of steps we would take in the immediate future and others that form part of our long term plan.
Short-term plans
1. How much auxin we are producing - hopefully we will know from HPLC.
Explanation
2. How much auxin we want to produce for optimal root growth - from modelling.
3. Construct we would build to achieve the above.
4. Continuation of soil experiments.
5. Continuing the soil erosion experiment.
6. Exposing plants to our auxin-producing bacteria for a prolonged period of time and observing changes in dry-mass, root length and root branching compared to a control that has been exposed to E. coli not producing auxin.
7. Photoconvert Dendra2 in bacterial cells that have been taken up into plant roots and image the same cells at set time intervals to assess whether the cells are metabolically active
Long-term plans
1. Computationalliy model the long-term uptake and distribution pattern of IAA inside roots.
A mathematic model will be developed to quantitatively describe the relationship between root growth and IAA concentration level inside the plant. The model will be intergrated into the IAA metabolism pathway and cell elongation process to give a more accurate prediction of the response of plants to a certain amount of IAA.
2. Testing and implementation in the field.
We have to ensure that the IAA secreted by our bacteria is beneficial for the environment and in now way detrimental to existing plants and ecosystems. For this, field trials will need to be conducted in much later stages of the project.
