Team:SDU-Denmark/Tour62

Reality

Edible coli is an innovative idea with big potential to be put into practice as a food source in the future. We succeeded in designing a protein with the recommended amounts of essential amino acids, as well as characterizing it. Furthermore we were able to transform Δ12 desaturase into an E.coli K12 strain, and to characterize the expression of lemon flavor.
But before our idea can be implemented in the production of nutrition, which is intended to be consumed, all processes described in next steps must be completed.

In addition, we thought about much other potential of Edible coli. It would be great to design a bacteria that express different amounts of the individual amino acids and fats, which would be regulated individually and customized to the need of the consumer. To get an even more nourishing product, Edible coli might also produce vitamins and minerals.

Damage to the environment might be feared by many; to avoid this, the bacteria could be provided with safety mechanisms that kill the cell, when it escapes into the environment.

At least, eating bacteria has been the major ethical issue during our design and development of Edible coli. This led us to the idea of transferring our system into another organism, like yeast that is accepted as food, although it is a living organism. Unfortunately yeast does not include all amino acid pathways, which makes it a big project to transform all essential enzymes.