Team:Washington/Gram Negative/Build
From 2010.igem.org
Header 1
Why induce tse2 expression only when a gram-negative pathogen is present?
A type six secretion system +/Tse2 +/Tsi2+ strain of E. coli could be administered like a traditional antibiotic after a pathogen infection by having a strain that constitutively expresses Tse2 and Tsi2. However, this would be a fairly brute force method of anti-bacterial comparable to traditional chemical antibiotics in its damage to the gut’s natural flora, and is only advantage over chemical antibiotics would be the current lack of Tse2 resistant pathogenic bacterial strains. If T se2 expression is induced by a chemical signal indicative of the presence of a pathogen, any unintended disruption of the natural gut flora will be limited to the area infected with pathogens, and the risk of Tse2 resistance would decrease. In addition, if Tse2 is only expressed when pathogenic bacteria are present, a Tse2+/ Tsi2+/ T6SS strain could be used in order to help prevent pathogenic gut infections, and could be a permanent member of the gut flora. Such a preventative strain could even be used against multiple gut pathogens by merely including multiple copies of tse2, each of which would respond to signals indicative of different pathogens.