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From 2012hs.igem.org

Our team is consisted of four students who are fond of thinking creatively, sharing our knowledge with others and making contributions to the society. We hope that iGEM 2012 could be a great opportunity for us to get our feet wet in the field of synthetic biology and interact with many other students around the world who are also interested in this field! Since our school does not have facilities for wet lab, team CSIA_SouthKorea asked professor In-Geol Choi in Korea University for guide. Professor Choi, Instructor Hyeok-Jin Ko and Hongjae Park let us to be familiar with synthetic biology, taught us how to use basic lab facilities and helped every part in our projects :)

Contents 1 Team 2 Project 2.1 Abstract 2.2 Introduction of E.Coli display using repressilator 2.3 Mechanism of the circuit 2.4 Design of the circuit 2.5 Variables that determine period of the circuit 2.6 Simulation of the display 2.7 Protocols 2.8 Applications 3 Outreach & contribution 4 Brainstorming 5 Notebook 6 Safety 7 References

Team

Our team and school is introduced in this page!

Project

Abstract

Based on the design of V.fischeri, we placed luxR gene under luxpL promotor and placed luxI, Aiia, and GFP gene under luxpR promotor. In this V.fischeri quorum sensing system¹, LuxI synthase produces an acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL), which is a small molecule diffuses extracellularly and triggers quorum sensing. When AHL binds to LuxR, it produces LuxR–AHL complex that activates luxI promoter. This also activate GFP genes, so fluorescence can be detected. AiiA 'represses'² continuing activation of luxI promotor by degrading of AHL. Therefore, fluorescence may have the cycle under right conditions.

This network which an activator triggers its own repressor illustrates a concept of synthetic oscillator design. Further, theoretical work shows how an autoinducer leads synchronized oscillations in a single cell and a population of cells³.

The team got interested in synchronized oscillator while reading Team Wageningen's 2011 project. However, we modified their model a little to increase the probability of success in experiment by using each luxpL and luxpR promoter for only one time.

Our research goal is to build the circuit for synchronized oscillator and use them for display. Based on the idea that oscillatory period differs for different cell population, we plan to have a 3 x 3 array, each well consisted of different colonies. The difference in period of GFP expression will allow to display certain figure at certain time.

In the world where people suffer from energy deficiency, we expect that this technology could be applied to many different areas. Among them, we think the most successful adaptation would be as an alternative for signs, secret messages and night stand.

Introduction of E.Coli display using repressilator

Our introduction further explains the system and goals.

Mechanism of the circuit

This is further explanation about mechanism of the circuit and explanation about the parts we used.

Design of the circuit

Since gene parts were already on the partsregistry, we linked them using Gibson assembly. However, our model is different from original plasmids used by Danino et al. We used luxpR only once to bring aiia, GFP, and luxI protein under the promoter. And we used luxpL promoter only once, placing luxR under it.

Since RBS sequence was short, we used gibson assembly to synthesize those four parts.

Then, by connecting those four parts and restriction enzymes, we made luxpR-aiia part to be cutted by EcoRI and SpeI, luxpL-luxR part by PstI and SpeI, and GFP-luxI by XbaI and PstI(illustrate below!).

Then, by using iGEM standard protocol, in two different types of vectors, PSB1A2 and PSB1K3, we ligated the parts with vectors as shown below.

Variables that determine period of the circuit

According to the thesis 'A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators' by Michael B. Elowitz & Stanislas Leibler, he period of oscillations in such networks is determined mainly by the stability of the protein that is expressed by the synchronized oscillators.

Further, 'A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks' by Danino et al. suggests that effective AHL dissipation rate affects the period of the oscillations. In other words, this means that flow rate significantly affects period. According to their experiment, at high flow rate, the stabilized oscillations exhibit period of 90+-6 min and mean amplitude of 54+-6 GFP arbitrary units. At low flow rate, they observed a period of 55 +-6min and amplitude of 30 +-9GFP arbitrary units. Overall, when they changed the flow rate from 180 to 296 micrometer per minute, the team observed an increasing oscillatory period from 52 to 90 min.

Both factors are beyond our control as we do not have proper equipments to control both factors.

Simulation of the display

Before doing the wet lab, in order to predict the results of our experiment, we did computer simulation of the light bulbs of the night stand that we are trying to make with colonies of Escherichia coli.

We simplified the oscillations of GFP expression in each E. coli colonies into sine function on time. Therefore, when the periods of the oscillation of the E. coli colonies are entered as input, in each cell of the 3*3 array, which represents the 9-well-plate, the sine function with each of the entered period is corresponded. We set -1 as the value of the sine function when the GFP expression is the lowest and 1 as the value of the sine function when the GFP expression is the highest. We assumed that the GFP expression of all the colonies started from the sine function value of 0.

Then, when the step size of time, tolerance of error, the picture that we are trying to express with the night stand are entered as the input, the program calculates the sine function value of each cell at certain time and seeks for the point where only the colonies of certain cells have the sine function value close to 1 inside the tolerance of error that was entered as input. Until the point is reached, the program keeps on calculating the sine function value of each colony by increasing the elapsed time by the step size of time that was entered as input.

The program continuously shows the process; we can actually see the numerical value of sine function of each cell at each moment. The program stops running at the time when the picture that we want to obtain (when the certain cells that make the picture have sine function values very close to 1) is expressed, and the program prints the elapsed time as output.

As a result, we are able to calculate the time needed to express the picture that we want to obtain using the light bulbs (colonies of E. coli in each cell) of the night stand (9-well-plate).

This is the instruction of how the values are put into the program.

Protocols

You will see us conducting the experiments according to the protocols.

Applications

The page introduces possible application of our unique use of synthetic oscillator.

Outreach & contribution

Outreach will lead you to a page about our introducing brochure about synthetic biology, and Synbio class in Suri Nature School.

Brainstorming

Please see our Brainstorming section. We have more than ten ideas explained!

Notebook

Please see our Notebook. We have an extensive log from September 2011 on our experiments! :)

Safety

In this page, Safety , you will see our team CSIA_SouthKorea's lab safety practice and learnings.

References

1. Danino et al, A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks”, Nature vol. 463, 326-330 (2010)
2. Liu, D. et al. Mechanism of the quorum-quenching lactonase (AiiA) from Bacillus thuringiensis. 1. Product-bound structures. Biochemistry 47, 7706–7714 (2008).
3. Garcia-Ojalvo, J., Elowitz, M. & Strogatz, S. Modeling a synthetic multicellular clock: repressilators coupled by quorum sensing. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 10955–10960 (2004).
4. http://avena.pw.usda.gov

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