Team:Pretoria UP

Synchronized, Conditional, Genetic Chemotaxis Programming

Project Description

The Pretoria UP iGEM team of 2015 have proposed a design for intelligent motile bacteria based on a combination of DNA modules that confer different functions. The synchronous behaviour of the bacteria will be achieved through a quorum sensing module allowing the population to behave as a swarm instead of independent units. A conditional response to an environmental signal is conferred through a post transcriptional control mechanism known as riboswitching, thus the bacterial swarm may recognise and respond to a chemical attractant. Since the system makes use of several modular components, an AND gate is required to process the various signals which in turn would trigger a genetic switch in the bacterial chemotaxis. The irreversible change is programmed by a DNA recombination switch which inverts the directionality of a promoter through the Cre-loxP pathway. We invite you to explore the various aspects of the project on this site.