Team:HUST-China/Background
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Background
With the rapid growth of economy in China, many environmental problems come along. In northern China, the Inner Mongolia grassland is facing increasingly severe desertification[1-2] ; in Hangzhou Bay and Pearl River Delta where cross-sea bridges were built, the loose soil at the base constantly troubles the constructors and security department[3-4]; along the coast of the South China Sea [5], marine ecology damages such as the recession of coral reefs caused by overfishing and trawl abuse also becomes a world-concern problem. However, a vital technology may be the solution to all of these problems above—the reinforcement technology. The reinforcement of soil can efficiently hold the water on the degenerative grassland, strengthen the basal soil of cross-sea bridges and restore the marine ecology environment of sea bed. Therefore, we set our project theme on combining the reinforcement technology with synthesis biology.
The existing reinforcement technologies usually tend to chemical or physical approaches and employ synthetic polymers as the curing agent. These polymers are toxic and undegradable in natural environment, thus it will bring contamination and damages for a long time.
Comparing with the traditional methods, the microbial reinforcement technology[6] , an emerging environment-friendly technology, shows its superiority. The principle of microbial reinforcement is adding urea and calcium chloride solution to the soil with bacillus strain in it. Under the induction of calcium ion, the strain will produce calcium carbonate which will deposit and cement the soil to perform the reinforcing function.
Our project is inspired by the microbial reinforcement technology and we further developed it in the light of synthesis biology. We developed a reinforcement kit in order to apply our method in many similar problems. The kit includes a control system, a supporting system and a flocculation system. We engineered eukaryote and included the up mentioned 3 systems into it. This kit was named Euk.cement, i.e. the eukaryote used for cementation.
Nowadays, the coral reef recession has rung alarm to the whole world. There are over 10% of coral reefs that are damaged and another 30% to 80% under threat of human activity. According to the statistics released by The Nature Conservancy, the recession speed of coral reefs is increasing and 70% of coral reefs will disappear in 50 years. Under this stressful circumstance, we hope that our engineered yeast can be used in the construction of artificial reefs and make an effort in restoring marine environment and saving the endangered coral reefs. Briefly speaking, with our reinforcement kit, we can use Euk.cement to collect and reinforce the hydraulic filled scattered sands onto regional limited seabed and form artificial reefs. Here we use Yarrowia lipolytica as the chassis to suit the demand of work in marine environment.
To know what Euk.Cement is exactly, please turn to description.
Reference
[1] Ash R F, Edmonds R L. China's land resources, environment and agricultural production[J]. The China Quarterly, 1998, 156: 836-879.
[2]Diamond Jared “Collapse.” Pp.364-5.Penguins Books,2005.
[3]Andrea Ding-Kemp.Enr.construction.com. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
[4] Murray N J, Clemens R S, Phinn S R, et al. Tracking the rapid loss of tidal wetlands in the Yellow Sea[J]. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2014, 12(5): 267-272.
[5]MacKinnon, J.; Verkuil, Y.I.; Murray, N.J. (2012), Asian Coastal Wetlands
[6]Jroundi F, Gómez-Suaga P, Jimenez-Lopez C, et al. Stone-isolated.
carbonatogenic bacteria as inoculants in bioconsolidation treatments for historical limestone[J]. Science of the total environment, 2012, 425: 89-98.