Difference between revisions of "Team:UiOslo Norway/Description"

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<h2> Project Description </h2>
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<h1> Project Description </h1>
  
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<p>Tell us about your project, describe what moves you and why this is something important for your team.</p>
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<p>Please read the
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<a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:UiOslo_Norway/Overview" >  
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project overview
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<h5>What should this page contain?</h5>
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first.</p>
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<li> A clear and concise description of your project.</li>
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<li>A detailed explanation of why your team chose to work on this particular project.</li>
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<li>References and sources to document your research.</li>
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<h2>1. Methane to methanol</h2>
  
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<p>Since the C-H bond in methane is very strong and requires expensive high tech equipment<sup>1</sup>⁠ we want to explore the possibilities of bioconversion of methane. Methanotrophs are single-cell organisms that can oxidize methane and use it as their sole carbon and energy source<sup>2</sup>⁠. To date there are two enzyme complexes known that can do the task of breaking methane; soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), and the membrane bound particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO)<sup>1–3</sup>⁠. Both enzymes break methane with the following reaction:
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CH<sub>4</sub> + O<sub>2</sub> + NADH + H<sup>+</sup> --> CH<sub>3</sub>OH + H<sub>2</sub>O + NAD<sup>+</sup>
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Other than that they both can convert methane to methanol and require oxygen for the process, are they structurally very different. Most methanotrophs express pMMO, whereas sMMO is less often present. pMMO is expressed at high copper levels, which makes sense as it uses copper in the core of the enzyme to break the strong C-H bond in methane. At low copper levels however, sMMO is expressed which uses iron-ions in the enzyme core for breaking methane.2–4⁠ The methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) (M. capsulatus (Bath)) is one of the most studied methanotrophs that has both pMMO and sMMO. In our project we used the sMMO operon of (M. capsulatus (Bath)), more information about sMMO (insert link to scroll down).
  
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We encourage you to put up a lot of information and content on your wiki, but we also encourage you to include summaries as much as possible. If you think of the sections in your project description as the sections in a publication, you should try to be consist, accurate and unambiguous in your achievements.
 
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Judges like to read your wiki and know exactly what you have achieved. This is how you should think about these sections; from the point of view of the judge evaluating you at the end of the year.
 
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<h4>References</h4>
 
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<p>iGEM teams are encouraged to record references you use during the course of your research. They should be posted somewhere on your wiki so that judges and other visitors can see how you though about your project and what works inspired you.</p>
 
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<h4>Inspiration</h4>
 
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<p>See how other teams have described and presented their projects: </p>
 
  
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Imperial/Project"> Imperial</a></li>
 
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:UC_Davis/Project_Overview"> UC Davis</a></li>
 
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<li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:SYSU-Software/Overview">SYSU Software</a></li>
 
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Revision as of 12:14, 17 August 2015

Project Description

Please read the project overview first.

1. Methane to methanol

Since the C-H bond in methane is very strong and requires expensive high tech equipment1⁠ we want to explore the possibilities of bioconversion of methane. Methanotrophs are single-cell organisms that can oxidize methane and use it as their sole carbon and energy source2⁠. To date there are two enzyme complexes known that can do the task of breaking methane; soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), and the membrane bound particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO)1–3⁠. Both enzymes break methane with the following reaction:

CH4 + O2 + NADH + H+ --> CH3OH + H2O + NAD+

Other than that they both can convert methane to methanol and require oxygen for the process, are they structurally very different. Most methanotrophs express pMMO, whereas sMMO is less often present. pMMO is expressed at high copper levels, which makes sense as it uses copper in the core of the enzyme to break the strong C-H bond in methane. At low copper levels however, sMMO is expressed which uses iron-ions in the enzyme core for breaking methane.2–4⁠ The methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) (M. capsulatus (Bath)) is one of the most studied methanotrophs that has both pMMO and sMMO. In our project we used the sMMO operon of (M. capsulatus (Bath)), more information about sMMO (insert link to scroll down).