Project Overview
Our project is currently one step in a larger endeavor.
Last year we were successfully able to take the nif cluster from a cynobacteria and get it to function in E. Coli. Unfortunately, the amount of Nitrogen produced was minimal. This year we are dedicated to tweaking E. Coli so that it better promotes Nitrogen fixa tion.
In doing such, we hope to create a system for nitrogen fixation that operates exclusively in the absence of light in preparation for transformation into a photosynthetic system. After we come to a greater understanding of how the system works and perfect it, we can move on to working in a more complex organism, such as a cyanobacteria likeSynecosystis spp. 6803.
The end goal is to create plants that can fix their own nitrogen by moving from the cyanobacteria into the chloroplast of the plant. Endosymbiotic theory postulates that cyanobacteria are the ancestors to chloroplasts, so this is the natural progression.
Last summer, we were successful in transforming E. coli with the nif cluster from Cyanothece 51142, and ran an Acetylene Reduction Assay in order to test for the strains ability to fix nitrogen. For more information, please consult our Nitrogenase page.
Be sure to check out our Collaboration and Parts pages as well!