Difference between revisions of "Team:Newcastle/Proof"

Electrically Induced 'Light Bulb'

We aimed to engineer Escherichia coli that it increases fluoresce when an electrical current is passed through the growth medium, via the use of inducible promoters that respond to the heat-stress created by an electrical current.

We designed two parts (BBa_K1895000 and BBa_K1895006) which respond to the heat-stress in two different ways:

1. BBa_K1895000 contains a HtpG promoter which is induced by a sigma-factor (σ³²). This sigma factor is produced by cells when under different forms of stress. This part also contains a σ³² coding region which should create a positive feedback loop and therefore increase fluorescence.
2. BBa_K1895006 contains a DnaK promoter which is induced by dnaK, a product of other stress related responses within the cell.

Arabinose Controlled Variable Resistor

We aimed to create a biological “variable resistor” by modifying the E. coli’s natural systems to allow for controlled ion uptake. In order to do so, we looked at the work carried out by the Tokyo-NokoGen iGEM Team in 2011 who used SmtA gene from Cyanobacteria and inserted it into a strain of E. coli. SmtA is thought to play a role in preventing heavy metal toxicity by binding excess heavy metal ions such as Cadmium (II), shown by Tokyo-NokoGen, or Zinc (II).

We took the SmtA part (BBa_K519010) and put it under the control of a pBAD promoter, induced by the presence of L-arabinose. This should allow us to control the uptake of Zinc ions by adding or removing L-arabinose, resulting in control over the resistance of the LB media.

Battery

To make a microbial fuel cell we followed the Reading University’s protocol

We sourced the material such as the neoprene gaskets, carbon fibre electrode material, cation-exchange membrane, J-cloth from Professor Ian Head, Dr. Ed Milner and Paniz Izadi from the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

Results

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