Team:Sharon MA Aquila/Notebook

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March 13: After looking through old iGEM projects for inspiration, we stumbled upon a project dealing with antifreeze protein (AFP) production. We began brainstorming possible applications of this protein, which prevents ice crystal formation in certain fish, plants, fungi, and bacteria. We discussed using AFP on roads, but after researching activation methods for road-thawing bacteria, we determined that we would have to introduce another material (arabinose, lactose, etc.) in order for our bacteria to begin producing the protein. Briefly, we researched cold activation methods, before determining that these methods were generally difficult to implement and only operational at temperatures above zero - not to mention that bacteria are usually nonfunctional below freezing.
March 20: After some discussion with Mr. Dixon and among the group members, we decided to take an idea from the 2008 MIT iGEM team, who created teeth-cleaning bacteria by transforming the bacteria used for yogurt cultures. We decided it might be a good idea to introduce the AFP gene into one of the yogurt bacteria, which would already be present in the food we were trying to affect. We additionally decided that the gene should be activated by lactose, because it was already present in the yogurt and because the bacteria already reacted to it to produce lactic acid.
After researching the two bacteria present in yogurt cultures, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus, we determined that the former is more suitable for our experiment, because it generally remains in the yogurt following yogurt production - and because the MIT team wiki had detailed protocols regarding transformation of Lactobacillus bulgaricus bacteria.
March 27: Today, we started to plan out how we are going to execute our project. We plan on getting Lactobacillus buglarius bacteria from [http://www.atcc.org/ATCCAdvancedCatalogSearch/ProductDetails/tabid/452/Default.aspx?ATCCNum=11842&Template=bacteria ATCC] and our AFP gene from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, hopefully from the source plate. The 2011 Yale team created a part called [http://partsregistry.org/Part:BBa_K652001 RiAFP] (Rhagium inquistor antifreeze protein), which came from the Rhagium inquisitor beetle. More information about possible parts we can use can be found here.
Additionally, we also did some research on the procedures that we will need to complete in order to put our new DNA in the Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. We will be using the 2008 MIT team's protocols for this task, including the [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_transformation Lactobacillus transformation] and [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_miniprep Lactobacillus miniprep]. [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_culture This] is how we will culture our bacteria.
April 3: Today we wrote a parts list, which includes our bacteria in addition to the various DNA parts we need (the RiAFP part, a plasmid responsible for Erythromycin resistance, and the LacS promoter). We decided that we would introduce an antibiotic into our growth medium so that other bacteria would be unable to grow. We also compiled a list of materials we will need for culturing and transforming the bacteria. Our lists and procedures can be located in the Project tab.