Team:British Columbia/Project/S-Layer

Main CSS S-Layer

S-Layer Engineering

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass, providing the structural support for plants, is the earth's largest raw available reserve of carbon for bioconversion. Composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, lignocellulosic biomass is evolved to withstand the elements and protect plants from degradation during their lifespans. These properties make it extremely difficult to degrade lignocellulosic biomass, with only a few cellulolytic organisms being able to degrade it naturally. Scientific approaches to degrade lignocellulose into valorized materials have mainly been focused on...............................this is a problem because................ Our approach focuses on displaying lytic enzymes on the surface of the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus in the hopes that it will increase the speed of cleavage and will release more glucose into the system for E. coli to convert into valorized chemicals. We specifically chose C. crescentus as it natively expresses a two dimensional crystal lattice protein called a surface layer (S-Layer). Our goals were to clone in our cellulolytic enzymes into the S-Layer protein in the hopes when the bacterium expresses the S-Layer protein our enzymes will be embedded onto the this protein and folded correctly on the surface of the bacterium.

Key Achievements

  • Cloned in 5 different cellulase constructs onto the rsaA plasmid and transformed into C. crescentus: Endo5A, Gluc1C, E1_422, E1_399, CEX
  • Bio Bricked 5 different cellulase enzymes into PSB1C3 to with pTac promoter and RBS: Endo5A, Gluc1C, E1, G12, CEX
  • Confirmed surface layer fusion protein expression of 5 different cellulase constructs: Endo5A, Gluc1C, E1_422, E1_399, CEX
  • Confirmed increased cellulase activity of five different cellulase constructs expressed on fusion protein of C. crescentus: Endo5A, Gluc1C, E1_422, E1_399, CEX
  • Confirmed baseline intracellular cellulase activity of five different cellulase constructs expressed in e. Coli: Endo5A, Gluc1C, E1, Gluc1C, CEX

Design

Methods

Results

References