Difference between revisions of "Team:USTC/Results"

Extraction of Permeability Improvement Fragements

We successfully get gene fragements that are used for improving bacterial permeability, which including,

• SCVE, a viroporin originally from SARS virus, is synthesized by Sangon Co. ctd.

• OprF, a bigger porin compared with OmpF in E. coli, is extracted from P.aeruginosa， PAO1 genome by PCR.

• T7 is a strong promoter which we got form Parts Registry. T7 will be used to trigger the expression of both OprF and SCVE.
  

• Cas9 is got from 2015 Part Distribution.

• gRNA-AcrB and gRNA-EmrE, these two fragments are for silencing bacterial transmembrane protein AcrB and EmrE to strongly block drug efflux system. These two parts are synthesized by Sangon Biotech Company.

Construction of Permeability Improving Plasmid

• Construction of plasimid with T7-SCVE (BBa_K1593667) . We finally ligated the T7 with SCVE and got T7-SCVE (BBa_K1593667).

• Construction of plasimid containing T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210). This is the result of T7 with OprF.

Growth Characterization

We firstly characterized the growth rate of genetically modified CACCI along with wild type BL21 using optical density at 600 nm, which is called OD 600, in order to demonstrate that the overexpression of porin(OprF with T7,BBa_K1593209) or viroporin(SCVE with T7, (BBa_K1593667) won't severely affect the growth of bacteria, at least it won't significantly inhibit bacteria growth and become a kill switch.

All bacteria are cultured previously in LB medium about 12 h. And then the measurement of bacteria growth through time began at 8 A.M. the other day.

As the images above illustrated, we found E. coli BL21 wild type has the best growth characteristics with a maximal OD600=3.427. Whereas E. coli BL21 with OprF (BBa_K1593210) has a relatively low optical density as its OD600 after 12 h is 2.808 compared to the wildtype. In the same way, characterization of E. coli BL21 with SCVE, http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1593667 showed a slightly smaller OD600, as its finally turned to 2.835. E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667) are showing 19% decreased maximal cell density and 18.5% decreased maximal cell density respectively in comparison with wild type.

Consequently, the result implies that the genetical modification on bacterial permeability, at least the overexpression of OprF and SCVE with a strong promoter T7, won't significantly influence the bacterial growth. Thus, genetically modified bacteria can be used in the following experiments.

Later on, we will characterize the basic permeability capability of E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667).

ONPG Assay

ONPG, that is the abbreviation of ortho-Nitrophenyl-β-galactoside. ONPG is a colorimetric and spectrophotometric substrate, previously used for detecting β-galactosidase activity. ONPG is actually colorless at normal situation, however if it triggers the degradation reaction catalyzed by β-galactosidase, we will get galactose and ortho-nitrophenol. Surprisingly, the compound ortho-nitrophenol has a yellow color, which means we are able to detect the chemical reaction through OD detection. Besides, owing to the existence of β-galactosidase in bacteria, a more intense optical density we detected, that means there are more ONPG uptaked by bacteria. Therefore, using ONPG we are able to distinguish the permeability capability of different bacteria.

Here's our result.

Note: The wavelength for detecting the bacterial concentration and absortion of ONPG are respectively 600nm and 406nm.

First, we detected the bacterial solutions to control the initial concentrations.

The OD values for E.coli BL21, E.coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) , E.coli BL21 with T7-SCVE(BBa_K1593667) are respectively 2.856,1.806 and 1.889. Based on these, we know that the concentrations of these three bacteria are close.

Then we add ONPG to the bacterial solutions and detect the OD.

From this figure, we can see a rising trend in all bacterial solutions. The OD values for E.coli BL21 with T7-OprF(BBa_K1593210) and E.coli BL21 with T7-SCVE(BBa_K1593667) are respectively 0.2520 and 0.2588,both are higher than E.coli BL21,the wild type. We can infer that the absorbtion of modified bacteria is higher than the wild type.

There is a more visual figure for comparing the absorbtions. We made a zero calibration using the OD value of wild type as the zero level.

In general, the OD values of both two modified bacteria are rising. For E.coli BL21 with T7-OprF(BBa_K1593210), the rising is relatively smooth. For E.coli BL21 with T7-SCVE(BBa_K1593667),the value goes down first, then goes up .And the E.coli BL21 with T7-SCVE(BBa_K1593667) has a higher absorbtion than E.coli BL21 with T7-OprF(BBa_K1593210).

NPN Assay

N-Phenyl-1-naphthylamine(NPN),C16H13N, CAS:90-30-2, FW: 219.29, is a nonpolar probe, whose fluorescence signal is relatively strong in a phospholipid environment, but weak in aqueous surroundings. Consequently, using this feature, we are able to characterize bacteria permeability by measuring the fluorescence intensity of the bacteria solution. When NPN molecules are absorbed by bacteria, we will observe a significantly rising fluorescence intensity. The more fluorescence intensity we got, the more permeable the bacteria are. Here are what we got from NPN uptake assay and the conclusion on genetically engineered bacteria permeability improvement.

Here's our results, the first picture illustrate the total fluorescence intensity measurement by BMG Labtech CLARIOstar®.

Note: The fluorescence intensity signal at excitation wavelength range is 305nm to 335nm and emission wavelength range is 370nm to 410nm, which is recommended by previous research.

The total fluorescence intensity of E. coli BL21 wild type is 126451. On the other hand, the fluorescence intensity in E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667) are respectively 207322 and 151820, which are significantly larger than the wildtype assay.

Though we have already got the exact data on NPN uptake, we still need to revise its effectiveness because of the different bacteria concentration of E. coli BL21 wild type, E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667). Here is the exact bacteria concentration data, based on OD600nm,

After correcting these data, we are able to get bacteria absorption uptake capability in average, which is a more accurate value to characterize bacterial permeability property.

The fluorescence intensity in average of E. coli BL21 wild type is 34521.16. On the contrary, the fluorescence intensity revised by bacterial concentration in E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667) are respectively 85282.60 and 62195.8, which are relatively 2.5 folds and approximately 2 folds to E. coli wild type, that is a significantly improvement compared to wild type.

Consequently, through NPN uptake assay, we are able to conclude that the small molecule uptake capability of bacteria improved after our genetical modification. Thus E. coli BL21 with T7-OprF (BBa_K1593210) and E. coli BL21 with T7-SCVE, (BBa_K1593667) are both able to use as the candidate bacteria strains for NDM measurement.

Bibliography

1. T. Mattila-Sandholm et al. Fluorometric assessment of Gram-negative bacterial permeabilization. Journal of Applied Microbiology 2000, 88, 213–219

2. Scott Banta et al. Genetic Manipulation of Outer Membrane Permeability: Generating Porous Heterogeneous Catalyst Analogs in Escherichia coli dx.doi.org/10.1021/sb400202s ACS Synth. Biol. 2014, 3, 848−854