Team:Hangzhou-H14Z

The best way ever to preserve lithic relics

an innovative biochemical method to resolve erosion.

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The inscriptions on Precipice are one of the most common and fundamental forms of traditional Chinese relics. Due to having been carved in open areas plus the exposure to sunshine and raindrops, which is often the case for most of them,the Inscriptions are weathered readily. Currently, there are quite a few methods to resolve this phenomenon but some of them are not used properly which occasionally cause the damage for the Inscriptions. Our research project aims at using microorganism method, which is to put a plasmid with the ability to convert bio-oriented oxaloacetic acid to oxalate acid into the cell of E.coil, inducing the cell and the product will react with one component of the Inscriptions-- calcium carbonate-- to generate nearly insoluble calcium oxalate monohydrate to adhere to the Inscriptions for protection. Another E.coil with the ablility to secrete lipase has also been constructed; we aim to add this cell when we are cleansing the Inscriptions to resolve the oil substances on the surface of them. By constructing these products, we are able to protect the relics either from human errors as cleaning and protecting or from natural damnification.

some &nbsp destroyed &nbsp inscriptions &nbsp on &nbsp Precipice

photos were took within Hangzhou

The White Tower

a famous religious symbol in Hangzhou

Figure of Buddha

a symbol of Buddhism

Woman in palace

stone inscription

Statue of MAHAKALA

Ancient monument

Ancient chinese governor

stone inscription

Project's  Presentation

photoes were took within Hangzhou

• Project's background part I
  
• Project's background part II
  
• Principles of experiments
  
• Procedures in detail      part I
  
• Procedures in detail      part II
  
• Results of Experiments & Analysis
  
• Mathimatical model
  
• Time line
  

Project's background part I

       The area near Qiantang River has a profound history of wealth. Hangzhou, in the heart of this area, situated many astonishing lithic cultural relics. Most of them were made during The Ten Kingdoms (A.D. 891-A.D. 979) and Song Dynasty (A.D. 960- A.D. 1279). Not only do those lithic relics represent the cutting edge of stone carving technology in contemporary time, but also they provide historians and archaeologists with solid historical evidence.

        There are three main types of lithic relics in Hangzhou; they are stone sculptures, stone towers also known as Dhavaja, and stone inscriptions. The stone sculptures are primarily represented by Feilai Peak (飞来峰), Ciyun Ridge (慈云岭), and Statue of Mahakala in Baocheng Temple (宝成寺麻曷葛剌). Stone Towers are primarily represented by White Tower (白塔). Stone inscriptions are primarily represented by Hetingwuhe Fubei on Lonely Mountain (孤山放鹤亭舞鹤赋碑).

        Plus, Feilai Peak and White Tower are National Key Historical Relics. Most lithic relics encounter physical, chemical and biological interaction, resulting in weathering corrosion, pulverisation lesion, cracking, contamination, and colour mottling. Those phenomena jeopardise the value of lithic relics and even lithic relics themselves, and the lithic relics in Hangzhou are not of exceptions.

        In 2002, some of the classic lithic relics were inspected and it was found that the surface of Feilai Peak Sculpture was greatly ruined (Figure 1), and there is leaking on Ciyun Ridge Sculpture (Figure 2)..

    Meanwhile, Cultural Relics Department of China has been trying to maintain and recover the lithic relics. Since 2002, Cultural Relics Department of China mainly has been removing surface deposit, depleting pounding, strengthening crag, and changing flora; the government washed Feilai Peak Sculpture for many times (Figure 3).Government built a top above the Ciyun Peak Sculpture, this relic no longer had to expose to sun and rain henceforward (Figure 4).

    White Tower was comprehensively cleaned and strengthened by silicone by Zhejiang University of Technology (Figure 5).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3-1

Figure 3-2

Figure 4-1

Figure 4-2

Figure 5-1

Figure 5-2

Project's background part II

     The power plants and railways were removed. During the washing, the staff intentionally left part of this tower intact, and made an contrast for further research of anti-contamination and anti-weathering (Figure 5-3, 5-4)

    However, 2015 field research shows most external lithic murals, statue, and towers still suffer from damage. Some even have distraction in main stone body. Meanwhile, there grows moss. Indoor stone inscriptions though are visible; there are obvious and irremovable cracks.

     Today, most preservation of lithic relics employ physical, chemical, or engineer approaches no matter where. It has been proven by reality that each of those approaches has fatal disadvantages for long-standing preservation of lithic relics, and those disadvantages would even lead to the ruin of lithic relics.

    Since forever, there are two categories of methods to preserve-- organic and inorganic. Organic materials cannot reach the standard of time to preserve relics such as epoxy resin, acrylic resin, silicone, etc.; inorganic materials would form hard shell that is not compatible or even react with the lithic relics, such as lime, barium hydroxide, and sulphuric acid.

     In conclusion, finding a long-standing, inexpensive, and efficient method to preserve lithic relics is an impending issue.

Figure 5-3

Figure 5-4

Principles of experiments

    The documents cited shows that even after natural weathering, biological decomposition, and acid rain erosion for a time period of time, some stone inscriptions, which are on rock surface containing calcium, remain in good condition because there is a thin layer of naturally formed semitransparent mineralised film that is hydrophilic and compact on such rock surface.

     In some part under the fine film, knife scratches on the stone from over a thousand years ago are still visible indistinctly. According to solid analysis, natural mineralised film is primarily composed of calcium oxalate monohydrate [Ca(COO)2·H2O] whose process of composition is interfered by microorganism.

     There are some advantages of calcium oxalate being a film as follows,

        1) In water, especially in acidulous water, the solubility of calcium oxalate is one order of magnitude smaller than normal calcium carbonate.

        2) Organically oriented calcium oxalate crystal's particles are fine and compact, which prevent the infiltration of toxic and harmful materials.

        3) The system can't be easily broken by external forces in that there is no distinct boundary between calcium carbonate rock and calcium oxalate film.

        So, this research project has chosen E. coli that has been transcribed with lipase to clean some stone relics that are covered with oil; then, we use E. coli, with transcription, that can secrete oxalate acid upon the stone relics. Therefore, there forms calcium oxalate to be protection film in order to preserve lithic relics.

        If we use chemical methods to generate calcium oxalate, we have to immerse the lithic relics in the chemical liquid; however, it is not suitable for the preservation of large-scale outdoor lithic relics. In fact, the natural existing calcium oxalate comes from the reaction of oxalate acid generated by microorganism and calcium compound on the surface of stone. This research project will utilise genetic engineering methods to "graft" the gene that generates calcium oxalate into Escherichia coli (E. coil).

    Then oxalate acid reacts with calcium lithic relics to generate calcium oxalate, which stimulates its natural formation process. Finally, there forms a fine layer to protect the lithic relics.

Procedures in detail

1.1 Experiment reagents and equipment

    1.1.1 Target genes

        (1) Lipase: lipase is the target gene segment of this experiment, and the gene sequence is synthesised by IDT Inc.

        (2) Oxaloacetate acetylhydrolase, abbreviation OAH, is the target gene segment of these experiments. The main function of OAH is to transfer oxaloacetic acid to oxalate acid; thus the oxalate acid reacts with the calcium ion to form calcium oxalate that preserves the relics. The target gene segment is synthesised by IDT Inc. after found in gene pool.

    1.1.2 Strain and Plasmid This experiment uses plasmid pET-28a, and the E. coli is TOP-10 competent cell, provided by TIANGEN Biotech CO., LTD.

    1.1.3 Enzyme and Reagents This experiment uses restriction enzyme provided by NEB; T4 DNA Ligase, TIANprep Mini Plasmid Kit, and TIANquick Midi Purification Kit are provided by Tiangen Biotech CO., LTD.

    1.1.4 PCR Primer

        (1) Lipase: According to the sequences and the MCS (multiple cloning sites) to the destination vector of the Lipase, XhoI and NcoI are chosen to be the enzyme cutting cites for the inserting enzyme cutting cites. There form the following primers:

    Sense primer: 5’-AAGCAAGCCCATGGAATTTGTAA-3’ (Underlined proportion is Ncoi enzyme cutting cite)

    Anti-sense primer: 5’-TTTTGTTGCTCGAGTTAATTCG-3’ (Underlined proportion is Xhoi enzyme cutting cite)

         (2) OAH: According to the sequence detected by OAH, the primer is synthesised by the Invireogen:

        Sense primer: 5’-ATCATCTTGCATATGGCGTCCACCATTGCTGTT-3’ (Underlined proportion is Ndei enzyme cutting cite)

         Anti-sense primer: 5’-TTTCCTTTTGCGGCCGCTTAG-3’ (Underlined proportion is Noti enzyme cutting cite)

    1.1.5 Substrate Medium

        (1) The experiment contains LB substrate media. Take the example of confecting 200mL; the materials needed are 2g of tryptone, 1g of yeast extract, 4g of sodium chloride, and 200mL of water with 1000× ratio of chloramphenicol.

        (2) The experiment contains LB substrate media. Take the example of confecting 200mL; the materials needed are 2g of tryptone, 1g of yeast extract, 4g of sodium chloride, and 200mL of water with 1000× ratio of Kanamycin Sulfate.

        (3) The experiment contains Kanamycin Sulfate substrate media. Take the example of confecting 400mL; the materials needed are 4g of tryptone, 2g of yeast extract, 4g of sodium chloride, 6g AGAR powder and 1.2mL

Procedures in detail

1.2 Procedures of Experiments

     1.2.1 PCR Proliferation

        Due to high content of G-C base-pairs in target gene segments, GC Buffer is required in PCR proliferation. Refer to Takara's protocols to prepare 200μL of system: 100μL of GC Buffer, 16μL of dntp mixture, 4μL of sense primer, 4μL of anti-sense primer, 4μL of DNA templet, 2μL of Taq, and 70μL of H2O. 60°C-70°C is used for Gradient PCR, the sixth bad is the brightest (Figure 9) thus the temperature of such is best for annealing. In new system, PCR is proceeded in that temperature; finally we get the gene segments with gene linkers.

    1.2.2 Gel electrophoresis, purification

    1.2.3 Digestion

        Put NotI and NdeI restriction endonuclease in gene segment and vector pET-28a respectively.

    1.2.4

         Linking and setting the groups Experimental group:plasmid after digestion + target gene + T4 DNA Ligase + buffer Control group: plasmid after digestion *Experiment conducted under 16°C

    1.2.5

        Use DNA purification kit to extract product after linking; transcribe in TOP-10 competent cell, put on Kanamycin Sulfate substrate media and then culture under 37°C.

    1.2.6

        According to the growth of strains, bacterium plasmid is extracted with digesting with two enzymes above. Recheck the correctness of position and size to assure that it has been linked.

    1.2.7 Sequencing by Sangon Shanghai, China

    1.2.8 Functional Test of Lipase

        (1) Fasten the AGAR Plane: 2.5g of AGAR powder, 6.25mL of tributyrin, 18.75mL 3g/dL of polyvinyl alcohol, 2.5mL 1g/dL Victorian Blue, 225mL of H2O. Heat and resolve the AGAR powder, pure into substrate media, chilling. IPTG solution: weigh 1.2g of IPTG and put it into centrifugal tubes. Add 40mL of H2O, resolve, then to the constant volume of 50mL. Use 0.22μm strainer to filter out the other bacteria, then put into refrigerator of -20°C.

        (2) Transcribe the lipase enzyme plasmid into BL-21 competent cell of E. coli, culture.

        (3) Pick bacteria into small colonies from growing strains on the cultivation board, which has been configured with a medium, Kanamycin, and join the 0.1 mmol/L IPTG solution to carry on the induction, six hours later to take on the culture medium centrifugal supernatant, get with lipase protein nutrient solution.

        (4) From fixed AGAR plate with holes, pick bacteria. Burn alcohol burner against the bottom of AGAR to assure it is stick. Put 30μL into the holes, lie horizontally in 30°C incubator for a while and then observe the change of colour.