Difference between revisions of "Team:Alverno CA"

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<h2>Clamping Down on Crosstalk:<br>

<small>How can we keep genes from interfering with each other in synthetic DNA circuits?</small></h2>

<center><h3>About this Project</h3></center>

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Building complex biological systems with many genes requires isolating genes. Active genes can cause nearby DNA to become supercoiled, <br>leading to unpredictable behavior of synthetic biology systems. We will test if DNA clamps (made from DNA-binding proteins) placed between <br>genes can stop this interference. If this project succeeds, it will allow bioengineers to build more predictable genetic circuits.</center>

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                 <center>Watch our introduction video here.</center>

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<center><h3>What is the context of this research?</h3></center>

Programming cells often requires building "circuits" of several genes<br> together on the same piece of DNA. Bioengineers have observed that <br>when two genes are placed next to each other, they often unexpectedly interfere with each other's<br> expression in an unexpectedly orientation-dependent manner.

Nobody knows with certainty what causes this genetic crosstalk, but one promising<br> theory involves DNA supercoiling. The transcription of DNA into RNA, the transcription process introduces supercoils, similar to kinks in a tightly-wound phone <br> cord. Supercoils directly affect the expression of genes, turning them on or off depending on the direction of the supercoil.</center>

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<center><h3>What are the goals of the project?</h3></center>

We will first build several plasmids (circular pieces of DNA) that <br>demonstrate cross-talk between genes. These plasmids <br>will consist of genes for two different fluorescent proteins (green fluorescent protein and red fluorescent protein) next to each other, in different orientations. <br>We expect to see differences in the relative expression of the two genes depending on how they are arranged and oriented, and we will quantify this effect.<br>

Next, we will try several strategies for removing these differences, including adding extra base pairs of spacing between the two genes and adding DNA "clamps" <br> made from DNA-binding repressor proteins between the two genes. We will again quantify the effects of cross-talk between genes, <br> which will hopefully be ameliorated by our additions.</center>

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