Difference between revisions of "Team:UPO-Sevilla"

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             <p style="text-align:justify;font-size:15px;padding-bottom:10px"> Bacteria are an amazing field to work on. They can develop a wide variety of functionalities and properties in a very short time, being easy to work with and extremely versatile. On this basis, we wanted to take advantage of one of the most remarkable characteristics of the bacteria we work with, Pseudomonas putida – the ability to form biofilms. These structures are composed of communities of bacteria which are integrated in an extracellular polysaccharide matrix that protects them from several kinds of stress. In addition, they have an increased metabolism, a feature that is often required in industrial production.</p>
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             <p style="text-align:justify;font-size:15px;padding-bottom:10px"> Glycerol is a byproduct from the biodiesel industry that contaminates the environment and constitutes a real problem worldwide. To help eliminating this compound, we use it as a carbon source for bacteria. We take advantage of Pseudomonas putida, a bacterium capable of adhering to substrate and aggregate to form communities or biofilms. In this state, bacteria are more efficient, robust and resistant than those in suspension and are excellent catalysts of biotechnological use. By using glycerol as the carbon source, bacteria forming biofilms can produce compounds that are beneficial for human beings.</p>
  
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       <p style="text-align:justify;font-size:15px">Therefore, we thought that it would be a good application to try and do some bioremediation with these strong and powerful bacteria. First, we thought about glyphosate, an herbicide that has been proved to be toxic to human. But due to technical difficulties, we could not continue with that idea. Instead, we found out about glycerol. It is being overproduced in the biofuel industry, and it is starting to become an environmental problem. So we started to model how our bacteria would eat that glycerol, using biofilms for that. But, is there anything else we can do once the bacteria are eating glycerol? We decided that there could be a compound we could produce with these biological reactors, and our choice was propionate. It is widely used in a large variety of fields, easy to excrete from our bacteria and, according to the model, easy to produce. Let’s get started!</p>
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       <p style="text-align:justify;font-size:15px">We genetically manipulate P. putida based on in silico predictions to increase glycerol assimilation and to control formation and dispersal of biofilms. Having that, there are a lot of molecules that can be produced by introducing the genes needed for it. We propose producing propionate, as it is a small and simple molecule easy to secrete and with a lot of uses in different industries.</p>
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        <p style="text-align:justify;font-size:15px">This way, we develop a production platform, eliminating a contaminating compound and producing a useful one in an efficient manner.</p>
 
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Revision as of 16:34, 18 October 2016

Abstract of our Project

Glycerol is a byproduct from the biodiesel industry that contaminates the environment and constitutes a real problem worldwide. To help eliminating this compound, we use it as a carbon source for bacteria. We take advantage of Pseudomonas putida, a bacterium capable of adhering to substrate and aggregate to form communities or biofilms. In this state, bacteria are more efficient, robust and resistant than those in suspension and are excellent catalysts of biotechnological use. By using glycerol as the carbon source, bacteria forming biofilms can produce compounds that are beneficial for human beings.

We genetically manipulate P. putida based on in silico predictions to increase glycerol assimilation and to control formation and dispersal of biofilms. Having that, there are a lot of molecules that can be produced by introducing the genes needed for it. We propose producing propionate, as it is a small and simple molecule easy to secrete and with a lot of uses in different industries.

This way, we develop a production platform, eliminating a contaminating compound and producing a useful one in an efficient manner.