Difference between revisions of "Team:Warwick/Modelling4"

Minimum E.coli for Image

The image on the left shows the minimum number of cells needed to produce a clear image with a discernible shape. For this we looked at simple shapes to see how complexity increased the number of cells or pixels needed.
The image on the right shows the increase of E.coli cells needed to make a shape. The the number of cells per shape follows a linear progression, proportional to the number of sides that the shape has. A basic first order, linear differntial equation would be C=13(S-2)+12, where C is the approximate number of cells needed to make that shape and S is the number of sides of the shape.

DNA Beading

One option we came up with is to create a string of DNA (by adapting an E.coli plasmid) which has Zinc finger binding sites at certain spots so that you could create a pattern of different E.coli cells which could be used to study microbial communities.
This could potentially then be used to create 2D shapes and images, by combing strings of DNA with the bonded E.coli cells along them to create something like the image to the left.
To make the DNA beads we will use an E.coli genome and then denature the double stranded DNA and then add in primers at different locations with the zinc finger binding sequence attached to the end.
This shows how numerous strings of DNA could come together to make an image in a 2D plane.
The benefit of this idea is that you could create very complex patterns with relatively few zinc fingers by just using a longer section of the original E.coli plasmid.

Primer Sequences for Beads

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