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Team:Macquarie Australia/Project
From 2010.igem.org
Aim
The aim of our project is to introduce Deinococcus radiodurans and Agrobacterium tumefaciens bacteriophytochromes into E. coli which have the potential to be used as molecular light switches in response to red and far-red light. Comparison and analysis of the phosphorylated peptides in recombinant E. coli can also be considered in the future.
Abstract
Photoreceptors are utilized by almost every organism to adapt to their ambient light environment.
Our aim is to engineer a novel reversible molecular ‘light switch’ within E. coli by introducing a photoreceptor from non-photosynthetic bacteria (D. radiodurans and A. tumafaciens).
By cloning the bacteriophytochorome coupled with heme-oxygenase, an enzyme that produces biliverdin from heme, the created colonies are able to respond to red and far-red light environmments.
This novel approach results in the colour of the E. coli ‘switching’ from blue to green.
Our E. coli chameleon will serve as a fundamental ‘bio-brick’ for future applications by providing a simple and photo-reversible switch.
