Team:Groningen/Hydrophobins

From 2010.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)

Revision as of 13:23, 23 August 2010

Hydrophobins

Biology

The hydrophobic proteins that we are expressing in our bacillus biofilm are called chaplins and are derived from Streptomyces. When Streptomyces is sporulating, hyphae are trying to grow into the air. Since these hyphae are very small, it is very hard for them to break the water-air barrier. This is why Streptomyces produces small hydrophobic proteins on the surface of its hyphae.

Three subgroups In total there are eight different chaplins. These eight chaplins can be divided into three groups.

Chaplin A-C These chaplins are the largest. They are almost three times the size of the other chaplins (... kD). Besides their size, these chaplins are special because they have a cell wall anchor and a hydrophilic region as well as a hydrophobic region.

Chaplin D and F-H These chaplin are small and only have a hydrophobic region.

Chaplin E This chaplin is also small but it is in vivo released outside the cell to start lowering the watertension before the hyphae actually penetrates the water-air barrier.

Physical properties Chaplins are interesting because they are amphipathic. This means that they "in theory" can change hydrophilic surfaces into hydrophobic surfaces but in turn can also change hydrophobic surfaces into hydrophilic surfaces.

Chaplins are functional amyloids that will assemble by a catalytic process from monomers in polymer chain forming rod like structure surfaces called amyloid fibers. These fibers are very rigid and hard to break down. These fibers can only be broken when boiled in SDS. They share distinguishing features with the medically important pathogenic amyloid fibers that are characteristic for many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, systemic amyloidosis and the prion diseases.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 '''Biology'''
-The hydrophobic proteins that we are expressing in our bacillus biofilm are called chaplins and are derived from Streptomyces. When streptomycyes is sporulating hyfe are trying to grow into the are. Since these hyfe are very small it is very hard to break the water air barrier for these hyfe, this is why streptomyces produces small hydrophobic proteins on the surface of it hyfe.
+The hydrophobic proteins that we are expressing in our bacillus biofilm are called chaplins and are derived from ''Streptomyces''. When ''Streptomyces'' is sporulating, hyphae are trying to grow into the air. Since these hyphae are very small, it is very hard for them to break the water-air barrier. This is why ''Streptomyces'' produces small hydrophobic proteins on the surface of its hyphae.
 [[Image:coat_aerial.jpg||650px]]
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 '''Three subgroups'''
-In total their are eight different chaplins. These eight chaplins can be devided in to three groups.
+In total there are eight different chaplins. These eight chaplins can be divided into three groups.
 	''Chaplin A-C''
-This group of chaplin are the largest and are almost three times these size of the other chaplins ones around ... kD. What makes these chaplins special besides their size is that they have a cell wall anchor and a hydrophilic region as well as a hydrophobic region.
+These chaplins are the largest. They are almost three times the size of the other chaplins (... kD). Besides their size, these chaplins are special because they have a cell wall anchor and a hydrophilic region as well as a hydrophobic region.
-	''Chaplin D, F-H''
+	''Chaplin D and F-H''
-These chaplin are  small and have only a hydrophobic region
+These chaplin are small and only have a hydrophobic region.
 	''Chaplin E''
-This chaplin is also small but is in the vivo relaesed outside the cell to start the watertension lowering before the hyfe actually penetrates the water-air barrier
+This chaplin is also small but it is in vivo released outside the cell to start lowering the watertension before the hyphae actually penetrates the water-air barrier.
 '''Physical properties'''
-What makes these proteins inteesting is that they are amfipathic, meening that they "in theory" can change hydrophilic surfaces into hydrophobic surfaces but in turn can also change hydrophobic surfaces into hydrophilic surfaces.
+Chaplins are interesting because they are amphipathic. This means that they "in theory" can change hydrophilic surfaces into hydrophobic surfaces but in turn can also change hydrophobic surfaces into hydrophilic surfaces.
-Chaplin are functional amyloids that will asemble by a catalytic process from monomers in polymerics chain forming rod like structure surfaces called amyloid fibers. These fiber are very rigid and and hard to break down.  These fiber can only be broken up by boiling them in SDS. They share distinguishing features with the medically important pathogenic amyloid fibers that are the hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, systemic amyloidosis and the prion diseases.
+Chaplins are functional amyloids that will assemble by a catalytic process from monomers in polymer chain forming rod like structure surfaces called amyloid fibers. These fibers are very rigid and hard to break down. These fibers can only be broken when boiled in SDS. They share distinguishing features with the medically important pathogenic amyloid fibers that are characteristic for many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, systemic amyloidosis and the prion diseases.
 [[Image:chaplins.jpg|center|400px]]