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Team:Cambridge-JIC/Project
From 2014.igem.org
Project Mosbi Overview
Sensing is an essential aspect of engineering. We need information about the world to make intelligent efforts to manipulate it. Ideal sensors are reliable, accurate and unobtrusive. Plants as biosensors fulfill these requirements and have the further benefit of being inexpensive and self-reproducing.
Our aim is to use the lower plant Marchantia polymorpha as a flexible, open source biosensor. The input, processing and output abilities are each parceled into separate modules which are linked using transcription factors and inducible promoters. Modules can be interchanged, so by swapping one input or output for another, PhytoSpy can flexibly be used to sense any condition or chemical, and report it in any way that a module has been designed for. This modular framework allows many devices to be constructed from the same library of components.
Our dream is to produce input, processing and output modules in separate plants which can be combined through Mendelian crossing. We want to make plant biosensors accessible to the home enthusiast in the same way that electronics has been made accessible by Arduino.
Introducing Marchantia
Marchantia polymorpha is a liverwort, primitive member of the bryophyte (non-vascular) group. It can be found worldwide, from tropical to arctic climates and urban areas. It grows in damp habitats, such as banks of pools and rivers, bogs, fens and dune slacks. After fires, Marchantia rapidly colonizes the burnt ground, restoring an eco-stystem. The plant possesses thalli are a few centimeters wide, small translucent root-like structures called rhizoids and characeristic umbrella-shaped reproductive structures (archegonia) earning it the 'umbrella liverwort' nickname.
Marchantia is haploid in its growth phase.
Our dream is to produce input, processing and output modules in separate plants which can be combined through Mendelian crossing. We want to make plant biosensors accessible to the home enthusiast in the same way that electronics has been made accessible by Arduino.
Project Description and History
Content
References
- Overall project summary
- Project Details
- Materials and Methods
- The Experiments
- Results
- Data analysis
- Conclusions
