Team:NYU-AD

• Home
• Project ▼
  • Description
  • Experiments & Protocols
  • Results
  • Design
• Parts
• Notebook ▼
  • Wet Lab
  • Dry Lab
  • Safety
• Human Practices
• About Us ▼
  • Team
  • Advisors
  • Attributions

The NYUAD iGEM team have created a self-sustaining mosquito trap. The trap attracts mosquitoes by having E.coli secreting indole and lactic acid, both of which are highly attractive to a broad range of mosquitoes, particularly, the Aedes Aegpyti, mosquito - the vector for Dengue and Yellow fever.  Indole is produced from tryptophan by E.coli with the genes tnaA and tnaB. Similarly, lactic acid is produced from fructose by E. coli with the gene lldD.

The trap was built predominantly by using a large Coca Cola bottle. It was cut into half horizontally and with the top half inverted and placed above the bottom, it forms an air-tight funnel-like structure with an opening where the lid would have been through which the mosquito can enter. The genetically modified E-coli was placed on a petri dish at the base of the bottle and the electric mesh was held in place at the neck of the bottle so that once the mosquito attempts to leave the bottle, it is stunned and falls back into the petri dish containing the bacterial colony. Upon contact with the medium, the hard exoskeleton of the mosquitoes is digested by chitinase (chitinase is produced by the gene ChiA in E.coli). With the hard outer exoskeletons removed, the E. coli uses the mosquitoes as a carbon source to sustain growth.