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Team:Paris Bettencourt/Project/Probiotics
From 2014.igem.org
Cosmetics and probiotics against body odor
It has been found that most body odors are caused by one particular bacterium
found in the skin microbiome: Corynebacterium striatum. C. striatum metabolizes
sweat compounds into volatile sulfurous compounds that smell. However, due to the
high rate of bacterial cell division, there is a high likelihood for mutants of C.
striatum to appear. The goal is to isolate a mutant of C. striatum that contains a
mutation in the gene, agaA, which is primarily responsible for body odor. This natural
mutant would have a non-functional agaA gene; therefore, it would not produce any
smell.
We plan to achieve this goal by using a technique known as CRISPR. CRISPR allows us to selectively kill a bacterium by targeting a very specific part of its genome. Thus, we will kill all normal C. striatum by targeting their genome, allowing us to find the natural mutants that survive the CRISPR. Thus, we will be able to produce a novel probiotic cosmetic using natural bacteria and treating body malodor.
