Project safety

Safety Concerns During Election of Project

In electing a project there were numerous ideas to be considered. They were divided into the following categories: the environment, foods, health & disease, physics/chemistry/biochemistry and finally other which included some more artistic ideas along with a few humorous ones (like the jeopardy bacteria – knows all the right questions). Especially while thinking about medical ideas for implementing in the body we knew there were serious risk issues that had to be considered because of the many ways bacteria may interact with the human body.

During our closer investigations of project ideas we also considered which bacteria it was possible to use. Our focus was to try and find a project that was possible to carry out by using E. coli. The reasons here for being that (cultivated strains of) E. coli are very well adapted to the laboratory environment since they are easy to keep alive, they can be fairly easy modified and unlike some wild strains of E. coli they no longer have the ability to thrive inside the intestines. Despite of these considerations we started out working on a project we called mE.chanic (because we wanted to make bacteria do mechanical work), and the idea was to have a culture of bacteria contract and relax, thereby making a pump-like movement creating mechanical work.

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Now, we found out that we could use pili as some sort of ‘grappling hooks’ to make a connection between the bacteria. Pili from E.coli had been measured to have a pulling force of about 100 pN (enough to work a nano-machine), and so it seemed that we would have a good chance of making usable mechanical work if we continued this idea. We just needed to find out how to control the formation and retraction of the pili.

The project turned out to be most likely to succeed if we used the pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, because it is very good at making the type VI pili we wanted. But, that is unfortunately due to its pathogenicity since the pili are an important part of this, as they are used for the bacteria to stay put and not get washed away. So using P. Aeruginosa was immediately out of the question because the risk of personal health (fx. getting a cystitis infection) for the researchers was too high, since they are students and not yet fully educated scientists. Also it would be a potential danger for the surrounding community if it spread. So instead we started to investigate the possibilities of using E. coli, but then found that [bacterial name] was a non-pathogenic bacteria with close resemblance to P. Aeruginosa, and also with resemblance to E.coli. So we started working with it. Eventually though, we had to discard this project idea on a safety basis: We had serious doubts that we could succeed with P. Aeruginosa, given that we basically didn’t believe the bacteria would function with all the genes we needed to provide it with (pili are virulence factors, and working with a non-pathogenic bacteria it would be less likely to make enough pili / keep its pili).

Then our thought was to use E. coli and provide it with pili, but this started a long discussion about whether this would make the E. coli potentially pathogenic. The end of the discussion was to give our project a big make-over keeping the concept of wanting to make mechanical work, but changing the idea of the actual mechanical work to be done.

We finally decided on the project of Bacterial Micro Flow, and the safety issues in relation to this project will be presented in the following. These include issues of researchers’ safety, public safety and environmental safety. We will also look at safety in relation to the specific biobricks we use and make, and will have a chapter on what the safety-staff at our university think of this project. Now, let us start at the lab.

Risk-assessment for Individual Parts

Methode

Monooxygenase

General use

This BioBrick poses no treat to the welfare of people working with it, as long as this is done in at least a level 1 safety lab by trained people. No special care is needed when working with this BioBrick.

Potential pathogenicity

The BioBrick’s product is not in itself toxic, but we do not recommend using this BioBrick for any type of system in humans or animals for the following reasons:

• Retinoic acid, which retinal can degrade into, can affect gene expression and function of almost any cell, including cells of the immune system; it also plays a fundamental role in cellular functions by activating nuclear receptors (11).
• Vitamin A toxicity can lead to hepatic congestion and fibrosis (12).
• Vitamin A and its derivatives have been implicated as chemopreventive and differentiating agents in a variety of cancers (13).

These effects are not directly associated with the enzyme itself, but have been observed in humans. It is highly unlikely that high enough doses can be reached with this biobrick. Please see references for more information about the diseases.

The biobrick has many homologs, that have the same function as this biobrick and is highly conserved in bacteria and eukaryotes. The biobrick does not affect the immunesystem in humans.

Environmental impact

To our knowledge retinal should not play a significant role in environmental processes or would disrupt natural occurring symbiosis.

The biobrick should not increase its host’s ability to spread, survive outside the laboratory, and will most likely decrease its ability to replicate.

Beta-caroten monooxygenase is found in a wide variety of different bacteria, insects and animals (5). As such we would be cautious as to letting a system containing this BioBrick into the wild, since it's function might conflict with existing systems. On the other hand one might argue that since it's function is already available in nature, the function is widely available.

The product of the BioBrick, retinal, also plays an important function in nature and animals. For this reason we fell that the BioBrick could be used in controlled settings, but not in the wild.

Possible malign use

There is not reason to believe this biobrick could be used for malign uses; it does not increase the hosts ability to vaporize, create spores, regulate the immunesystem or should be pathogenic. Construct notes

What is the origin of the genetic material used? What does the the genetic materiale do in this origin? Are there uncertainty about the genetical materials function?

The gene was cloned from Drosophila melanogaster cDNA. The normal function of the gene is to create beta-caroten monooxygenase as outlined above. The function of this gene is well characterized in the literature and there are little reason to suspect it should function otherwise.

What modification were done on the genetic materiale before insertion? If anything was modified, what function do you hope to achieve?

No changes were made to the DNA before inserting it into E. coli.

What vector did you use? Which antibiotic resistance were involved? Which protocol was used to insert the vector?

The gene was inserted into two plasmid backbones, both containing chloramphenicol resistance. Both plasmids are specially made for BioBrick use and as such tested and safe. The plasmid was introduced into E. coli via chemical transformation.

What is the stability of the insert with respect to genetic traits?

We have not yet tested the stability of the organism after insertion of our BioBrick.

How easily can the insert transfer to other bacteria or lifeforms?

We have not tested the vectors ability to transfer the BioBrick to other bacteria.

Where there safer alternatives to achieve this function? Where there safer alternatives to the host organism and vector used?

We considered the gene, the strains of E. coli and used plasmids as safe. Cell-free systems might have been used, but these have yet to gain the same function as real bacteria.

Hyperflagellation

Photosensor