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<div class="content"> | <div class="content"> | ||
− | + | <span class="ptitle">The Goal</span> | |
− | + | <p><span class="p"> | |
− | + | ||
+ | To create an effective biocontainment system, when implemented into a target cell, our system must restrict the cell in such a way that it only grows and replicates when a non-natural metabolite is present. Cells using this system will be unable to survive outside of controlled environments, reducing the risk of escape. To accomplish this goal, we aimed to select a protecting group for leucine and a corresponding cleavage enzyme to remove the protecting group, and to replace the wild-type leucyl-tRNA synthetase with a mutant leucyl-tRNA synthetase of our design. | ||
+ | The biocontainment functionality of this system begins at metabolite uptake. The cell must be able to take up a non-natural metabolite that is not typically readily available in the environment. | ||
+ | We chose the amino acid leucine as the metabolite we would modify. The non-natural modified leucine, after uptake, would then be | ||
+ | </span></p> | ||
Revision as of 07:01, 17 October 2016
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/1/16/T--Virginia--ProjectDesign_header.png)
To create an effective biocontainment system, when implemented into a target cell, our system must restrict the cell in such a way that it only grows and replicates when a non-natural metabolite is present. Cells using this system will be unable to survive outside of controlled environments, reducing the risk of escape. To accomplish this goal, we aimed to select a protecting group for leucine and a corresponding cleavage enzyme to remove the protecting group, and to replace the wild-type leucyl-tRNA synthetase with a mutant leucyl-tRNA synthetase of our design. The biocontainment functionality of this system begins at metabolite uptake. The cell must be able to take up a non-natural metabolite that is not typically readily available in the environment. We chose the amino acid leucine as the metabolite we would modify. The non-natural modified leucine, after uptake, would then be