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Latest revision as of 02:58, 20 October 2016
Introduction
Plastic is a ubiquitous material in modern consumer goods. One of the most common plastics used today is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Chemically, it is a polymer consisting of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid subunits. With the increasingly short life cycles of consumer products, PET waste is accumulating around the globe at an uncontrollable rate. Moreover, PET is a plastic that does not biodegrade well, and degradation often has to use industrial processes. Given the rapid accumulation of PET and the difficulties associated with biodegradation by ecosystems, it is paramount to find a more efficient method to degrade PET.Our iGEM project was inspired by the results of a collaborative study between Keio University and Kyoto Institute of Technology, two prestigious Japanese universities. Their research investigated the ability of PETase, an enzyme, to degrade PET plastic using a bacterium known as Ideonella Sakainesis. The success of PETase in the degradation of PET plastic into Polyethylene Terephthalate and Ethylene Glycol sparked our interest in improving the Japanese ecological environment. Thus, the goal of our iGEM project is to create a biobrick incorporating an ideal Anderson promoter to optimize the use of PETase in an E. coli bacteria system. Past iGEM projects centered on plastic degradation, such as those of Turkey 2014, University of Washington 2012 and Darmstadt 2012, also provided us with inspiration on the potential applications for our project, as well as lab protocols.
Our team focused on making a biobrick featuring the PETase enzyme to contribute to the IGEM registry. In addition, we hoped to optimize the initial step of PET breakdown, or depolymerization, so as to expedite the overall process of degradation. To accomplish these goals, we selected several Anderson promoters of different strengths (weak, moderately-strong, and strong) to test for optimizing PETase production. The faster the rate of transcription for the PETase gene, the more PETase enzyme is produced. The greater the volume of enzyme, the faster the rate of depolymerization, since there is more enzyme available to ‘work’ on a plastic sample.
Project Design
Each of our constructs featured an Anderson promoter of a given strength, followed by an oSMY gene, and then PETase. This is demonstrated in the construct diagram below:Figure 1: Diagram of ASIJ Tokyo PETase Construct