Team:Nanjing NFLS
Gas vesicle gene modification
——A possible strategy for water bloom control
The seasonal mass outbreak of green-blue algae poses serious threat to water environment. Gas vesicle protein, widely existing in all forms of planktonic cyanobacteria, provides the cyanobacteria with buoyancy and regulates their vertical distributions. GvpA protein acts as the main structural protein of gas vesicle.
Therefore, we plan to mutate GvpA1 gene in microcysis (main type of cyanobacteria causing algae boom) to limit the level of GvpA1 expression and change the conformation of gas vesicle protein---- a possible strategy to disrupt the distribution of microcysis in water and control algae bloom. The recombinant shuttle plasmid containing modified GvpA1 gene is transformed back into microcysis and western blot identification proves that the expression of GvpA1 after modification reduces significantly. The modified segment of GvpA1 and the shuttle plasmid we specially constructed to both replicate in E.coli and microcysis have been submitted as parts to be reused and analyzed by other teams.
Our team made up of 17 middle school students from Nanjing Foreign Language School in Jiangsu, China. Though we may diverse in grades and classes, we are all fanatics about synthetic biology and its future application on environmental science.
We are a team of biology and chemistry lovers and a team of future researchers. We studied, discussed and worked together and are looking forward to show our projects on iGEM stages. Inside schools, we took elective classes in STEM subjects and attended Olympiad competitions together. As the only high school team in southeast China, we are determined to bring all our knowledge together and make our own “steps” in the realm of synthetic biology.
We understand the need of connecting humanity to our science project. Determined to promote public awareness, concerns and engagement of our iGEM projects, we focused a lot on in-field human practices.
Inside school, we founded the first iGEM club and took chances at the science fair and club activities to introduce iGEM and our iGEM project. The specially-designed gifts and stamps for iGEM promotion are loved by all. Also we did presentations across the country, either offline or online, to help the students from other areas delve out their interests and potentials in biology (especially synthetic biology).
Outside school, we sent questionnaires at neighborhoods around Qinhuai river(main freshwater river in Nanjing) and at high schools to test their understanding on water bloom（subject of our project）and its harm to the environment. Together with volunteers and experts in our city, we joined and improved “Green Water Campaign” to focus public attention on water environment protection. The public report received thousands of views and “likes” on websites.
