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Team:MIT phage
From 2010.igem.org
iGEM 2010
hairy cells and polymerizing phage - introduction |
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INTRODUCTION Integrating the BioBrick assembly standard, synthetic biology, and phage display, a system has been developed to translate UV light input into M13 bacteriophage polymerization and biomaterial formation using E. coli as a chassis. Utilizing a previously characterized toggle-switch (Kobayashi, et al. 2004), the system created is set to a stable “on” state with the introduction of UV light. The “on” state turns on transcription of the genes necessary for phage polymerization. The phage polymerization can occur due to engineered coiled coal interactions of proteins being displayed on the phage coat. Cells infected with phage that lack a certain gene (gIII) produce long fibril-like polyphage that stick out of the cell; it is these polyphage that are designed to cross-link. In the future, these technologies could lead to advances in nanoscale fabrication, biomaterial production, and new applications for phage display technology. 
Our goal is to obtain something like that pictured to the left: a solid polymer. But this polymer was obtained through means of external cross-linking of M13 bacteriophage; we would like ours to be patterned by UV and controlled completely by genetic programming--no external linkers required.
Willis, et al. 2007
Below is an EM of E. coli with polyphage hairs. Our goal is to get these hairs to cross-link via coiled coil interactions. (Despite what it may look like, these are not cross-linking.)  Rakonjac and Model, 1998
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