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Team:BVCAPS Research KS/Project
From 2012hs.igem.org
Overview
Our project, in essence, designs the perfect alarm clock. The presence of a strong wintergreen smell is used to help the user wake up, heightening their senses. At night, when no light is present, a banana odor produced will assist in calming down the user, helping them go to bed. This all occurs in the absence of electricity through pure biological systems.
This system is the combination of the MIT and University of Texas teams' projects from years past. We are making a combined genetic circuit with the smell of the bacteria (banana or mint) depending on the time of day (presence of light). The light receptor protein, obtained from photosynthetic algae, turns the banana smell on in the absence of light, and the mint smell on in the presence of light. In the agar of the plates we use for the final system we would need to include the substrates isoamyl alcohol and salicyclic acid.
Visual of our system in presence of light
Visual of our system in the dark
Parts
Banana odor enzyme generator (BBa_J45199)- contains RBS, coding region, 2 terminators, location well 10B plate 1, resistant to amp/kan. It was isolated from yeast used in alcohol fermentation which would give it its unique taste. This part codes for a protein that breaks down isoamyl alcohol into isoamyl acetate giving off a banana smell. Mint odor generator (BBa_J45004)- contains coding region, location is well 23B plate 3 and Amp resistant. This gene was isolated from petunia and snapdragon plants. It breaks down salicyclic acid into methyl sali to give it a mint smell. Light sensor protein or Cph8 (BBa_I15010)- contains coding region, location is well 20D plate 3 and is Kanamycin resistant. This part was taken from a UT Tech previous iGEM project. If a photon hits the light sensor Cph1 it will then inhibit EnvZ. OmpR regulator protein (BBa_R0082)- transcription factor, used in UT tech previous iGEM project, is located in well 16K plate 1 , it is resistant to Amp. When phosphorylated at night by EnvZ it binds to OmpC promoter and represses the OmpF promoter. OmpC- promoter natural occurs in E. Coli, is used as promoter for banana gene sequence so it is activated in high amounts of OmpRp at nighttime. OmpF- promoter natural occurs in E. Coli, is used as promoter for mint gene squence so it is activated in the day when low amounts of OmpRp are present.
