Team:UGA-Georgia/Description

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Project Description

Archaea are a relatively untouched domain in the realm of synthetic biology, and our team strives to make archaea a tangible source for synthetic biologists such as Escherichia coli. Specifically, we utilize the anaerobic methanogen Methanococcus maripaludis to achieve our goals. Previously, as a proof of concept, our 2013 UGA Team showed that these archaeaon were able to produce the 10-carbon monoterpene geraniol; which is a valuable biochemical produced by geraniums. Based on these positive results, the 2014 team and our 2015 team have shifted our focus to producing invaluable tools in order to increase our yields of geraniol production, or any other protein researchers require. The fundamental tool we are creating will provide varying levels of translational expression due to mutations within the ribosome binding site, spacer region, and first base of the start codon. By selectively mutating this region, and screening our mutants for expression of our reporter protein mCherry, we will establish a tool-kit for the employment of future researchers. Also, for further verification of our “tools,” we have initiated an Archaeal InterLab Study with many participating teams to gather additional fluorescent data on our mutants. Furthermore, our project includes conducting flux balance analysis on a model of our organism M. maripaludis, as well as the M. maripaludis model including geraniol exchange reactions.

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