Team:KIT-Kyoto/Project/Abstract

Abstract

"E.coli Pen": Draw with your own color.

Our team, KIT-Kyoto suggests an “E.coli Pen” as a new Art Tool. This brand-new pen uses no ink but medium in which genetically modified E.coli has been cultured. The Pen is able to express more than four colors in various intensities with single bacterial culture. This will be achieved by constructing plasmids carrying genes coding for four different fluorescent proteins under the control of seven promoters having different sensitivity to oxidative stress. The E. coli carrying these plasmids will produce different colors with various intensities by differentially responding to the gradient of hydrogen peroxide treatment. Different from previous passive BioArt in iGEM, the genetically engineered “E. coli Pen” provides an active and wonderful tool for us to purely enjoy the Art having a feeling for biotechnology.

Introduction

A brand new form of art has emerged with the revolution of biology in the last ten years, this is Bio-Art. Adding new artistic elements, such as cells, DNA, genomes, proteins, enzymes, etc., this new form of artistic expression has as medium living matter, and the studios of the artists are biological laboratories, while high end technologies of genetic engineering, tissue culture and many others are their new painting brushes.

BioArt is considered by most artists to be strictly limited to “living forms,” although there is some debate as to the stages at which matter can be considered to be alive or living. Creating living beings and practicing in the life sciences brings about ethical, social and aesthetic inquiry.

Here, we aim at a completely new style of BioArt. In hitherto BioArt, the appreciator enjoys a work in the conventional way, that is he/she appreciates an artist’s resulting piece looking or touching it. The new style of BioArt we propose here is the enjoyment of making art itself. With the “E. Coli Pen” that we propose here the appreciator himself becomes part of the artistic work he is drawing enjoying the fascination of making the work and the work itself.

Results & Discussion

Materials & Methods

Materials

Strains

• Esherichia coli DH5a

Plasmids

Methods

Our standard protocols are listed below. Please click each item for details.

List of protocols

• Bacterial transformation　　>>go!!
• DNA miniprep　　>>go!!
• PCR　　>>go!!
• DNA digestion by restriction enzymes　　>>go!!
• Isolation of DNA fragments from agarose gel　　>>go!!
• Agarose gel electrophoresis　　>>go!!
• DNA ligation　　>>go!!

Culture media

• LB culture medium　　>>go!!
• SOC culture medium　　>>go!!
• SOB culture medium　　>>go!!
• 2xYT culture medium　　>>go!!

References