From 2010.igem.org

Abstract

Our team’s focus was to create a biological iron detector using techniques and procedures available to an ordinary high school laboratory that replicate methods used in university research laboratories. We constructed our reporter by combining an iron-sensitive promoter with a red fluorescent protein (RFP) coding sequence. We chose RFP because of its high visibility and easy detection. Although we encountered problems with the iron promoter’s inconsistency, the assembly was successful. However, the resulting detector is leaky. In our lab environment, we found that it was necessary to work with relatively high concentrations of bacteria and DNA. We developed simplified procedures for transformations, digests, and ligations, but we faced problems with gel electrophoresis and measuring the pigments from the bacteria.