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Team:LMU-Munich
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Ever increasing bacterial resistance to classical antibiotics remains a serious threat and urges the development of novel pathogen killing strategies. Exploiting bacterial communication mechanisms, like quorum sensing systems, seems to be a promising strategy for specifically killing pathogens and would allow targeting only those bacteria that use a specific autoinducer. Towards that goal, we want to introduce a genetic circuit into <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> to enable this bacterium to actively detect, swim towards, attach to, and finally kill <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> with peptide antibiotics. This strategy would involve a variety of different modules and possibilities to reprogram <i>B. subtilis</i>. To achieve the above mentioned properties, we initially would introduce the autoinducer-peptide (AIP) sensing two-component system AgrC/AgrA of <i>S. aureus</i> into <i>B. subtilis</i>, to create a <i>S. aureus</i> detecting strain. Subsequently, downstream processes, such as subtilin production and export, dispersin export to degrade biofilms, etc. would have to be introduced by using Agr-sensitive promoters to trigger the microbe killing mechanisms in response to an AIP gradient. Moreover, our project will also aim at expanding the “Bacillus BioBrick Box” of the 2012 iGEM-team to provide more high quality parts, including a Gram-positive quorum-sensing systems, to a research community that is still dominated by working with the Gram-negative model organism <i>E. coli</i>. | Ever increasing bacterial resistance to classical antibiotics remains a serious threat and urges the development of novel pathogen killing strategies. Exploiting bacterial communication mechanisms, like quorum sensing systems, seems to be a promising strategy for specifically killing pathogens and would allow targeting only those bacteria that use a specific autoinducer. Towards that goal, we want to introduce a genetic circuit into <i>Bacillus subtilis</i> to enable this bacterium to actively detect, swim towards, attach to, and finally kill <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> with peptide antibiotics. This strategy would involve a variety of different modules and possibilities to reprogram <i>B. subtilis</i>. To achieve the above mentioned properties, we initially would introduce the autoinducer-peptide (AIP) sensing two-component system AgrC/AgrA of <i>S. aureus</i> into <i>B. subtilis</i>, to create a <i>S. aureus</i> detecting strain. Subsequently, downstream processes, such as subtilin production and export, dispersin export to degrade biofilms, etc. would have to be introduced by using Agr-sensitive promoters to trigger the microbe killing mechanisms in response to an AIP gradient. Moreover, our project will also aim at expanding the “Bacillus BioBrick Box” of the 2012 iGEM-team to provide more high quality parts, including a Gram-positive quorum-sensing systems, to a research community that is still dominated by working with the Gram-negative model organism <i>E. coli</i>. | ||
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Revision as of 13:38, 27 August 2014
„BaKillus“: Engineering a microbe-hunting microbe
Ever increasing bacterial resistance to classical antibiotics remains a serious threat and urges the development of novel pathogen killing strategies. Exploiting bacterial communication mechanisms, like quorum sensing systems, seems to be a promising strategy for specifically killing pathogens and would allow targeting only those bacteria that use a specific autoinducer. Towards that goal, we want to introduce a genetic circuit into Bacillus subtilis to enable this bacterium to actively detect, swim towards, attach to, and finally kill Staphylococcus aureus with peptide antibiotics. This strategy would involve a variety of different modules and possibilities to reprogram B. subtilis. To achieve the above mentioned properties, we initially would introduce the autoinducer-peptide (AIP) sensing two-component system AgrC/AgrA of S. aureus into B. subtilis, to create a S. aureus detecting strain. Subsequently, downstream processes, such as subtilin production and export, dispersin export to degrade biofilms, etc. would have to be introduced by using Agr-sensitive promoters to trigger the microbe killing mechanisms in response to an AIP gradient. Moreover, our project will also aim at expanding the “Bacillus BioBrick Box” of the 2012 iGEM-team to provide more high quality parts, including a Gram-positive quorum-sensing systems, to a research community that is still dominated by working with the Gram-negative model organism E. coli.
