Team:BIT-China
Plasmid-Sensing Logically and Adjustably Cell Killer
Monitoring Plasmid Numbers
Kill the Slacker
In the procedure of large-scale industrial production, due to the random distribution of
plasmids in the process of bacteria proliferation
and division, the bacteria containing less
plasmids will gradually become the
“slackers”.
Generally, we aim to avoid these undesired bacteria become the dominant population.
There is no efficient way to prevent the birth of
plasmid-free bacteria and the applied ways are
only limited to the laboratory-use.
What about equipping the bacteria with a
plasmid-sensing logically adjustable cell killer
(P-SLACKiller)?
plasmid-sensing logically adjustable cell killer
(P-SLACKiller)?
Here is killer’s basic rule:
Kill the slackers (Plasmid number is below the
threshold);
Save the workers (Plasmid number is above
the threshold).
Worker-P：Cell containing our P-SLACKiller.
Kill the slackers (Plasmid number is below the
threshold);
Save the workers (Plasmid number is above
the threshold).
Worker-P：Cell containing our P-SLACKiller.
Surprise! We can guarantee
the microbial
population structure stay optimal now!
population structure stay optimal now!
Our team divide the project into 4 parts as below.
Why not click and have a look?
Our P-SLACKiller
Plasmids are losing, and the production efficiency is decreasing. Let’s equip the bacteria with a plasmid-sensing logically adjustable cell killer (P-SLACKiller) to kill slackers with less plasmids among bacteria!
In what situation can the bacteria be judged as slackers? There must have a threshold concerning plasmid numbers. Let’s find it out and adjust it accordingly.
Killer Device
For the slackers, they should be able to turn on the self-killing switch. We tried toxin proteins to produce the lethal effect.
Optimization
The executor killer should be stably maintained, so we integrated killer device into the genome. Moreover, we mutated promoters to adjust the threshold.
