Team:ZJU-China

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INTRODUCTION

Why we choose termites?

Termites are widely recognized as the 5th pest around the world, based on its astonishing number and incredible damage towards wood. Given that a termite weighed 1 gram, then everyone should own 500 thousand termites! Owing to their wood-eating habits, termites are terminators of crops, trees, buildings, river dams； and more often, spoil people’s life.

Our new system of termite terminator

IGEM ZJU-CHINA 2015 has created TERMITE TERMINATOR, a genetically modified toxins expression system with a delivery carrier CNC (cellulose nanocrystals), capable of trapping termites based on their trophallaxis.

Results and Application

We have successfully overexpressed avermectins in streptomyces avermitilis and achieved toxins manufacture in E.coli to kill termites. To trap effectively, we prepared cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and generated the nanofibrous microspheres self‐assembled from CNC as bacteria carriers. Additionally, a device has been designed. With the help of modeling, preliminary experience of the device has been made to prove its effect.

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