Acknowledgements

BananaGuard team would like to thank all members of the Microbiology (MIB) and Systems & Synthetic Biology (SSB) chair groups and their professors Willem de Vos and Vitor Martins Dos Santos at Wageningen University. Both departments gave us the amazing opportunity to be part of iGEM 2014. Apart from the laboratory space and chemicals, they also provided us with unconditional support during the entire iGEM experience, from the initial brain storming sessions to the iGEM Jamboree.

We would to give special thanks to John van der Oost and the laboratory technicians Tom Schonewille, Sjon Hendriks and Ruud Spruijt, who helped us with our doubts and questions while working in the laboratory. We really appreciate Steven Aalvink's, Alex Kruis' and Ton van Gelder’s advices related to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Gas chromatography (GC). María Suárez Diez provided unlimited advice and guidance on modelling. Thanks to the dedication of Wim Roelofsen, all the computers in our offices were fully working with all needed software properly installed. Also, we would like to thank Tom van de Weijer and Hauke Smidt for helping us with filling in the safety forms. We also want to thank Phelim Hoey for making our a lot of our photographs. Last but not least, we would like to thank Philippe Puylaert for checking if everything is according to safety rules during the whole iGEM project.

It is important to mention that without the help of all our supervisors, the BananaGuard project could not have come so far. The combination of knowledge and skills of our supervisors was vital to build our project from the scratch. Some were previous iGEM members, others experienced molecular biotechnologists, bioinformaticians, modelers and plant scientists. Without doubt we can say that we were very lucky to have such a diverse group of people giving support to us and our project. Moreover, we highly appreciate all the Saturdays, Sundays and evenings that they spent in the laboratory to give us access and supervision.

A special thanks goes to Gert Kema’s group from Plant Research International for supporting us from the beginning of our project. We would like to thank to Fernando Garcia Bastidas who was our main advisor for all aspects related to Fusarium infection and plant science knowledge. And also Maricar Salacinas who helped us with one of our interviews. The group was always friendly and very keen on providing us with anything that we needed - whether it was fusaric acid compound, greenhouse space, banana plants, Fusarium data or a GMO license for the greenhouse. We share the goal to save the bananas and together provide alternative solutions. To learn more, have a look at their wonderful website.

Here we would like to thank to persons who are not affiliated with the University but have helped us a lot (in alphabetical order):

• Alba Ramos Álvarez: For providing illustrations for the Wiki.
• A. R. Ferrari, Groningen University: For providing us with enzyme for a chitinase assay.
• Dr. Ben Blount, Dr. Tom Ellis & Dr. Ollie Wright, Imperial College London: For providing E. coli strains containing toxin and anti-toxin plasmids.
• Cees Waalwijk and Reinoud Bouwer: For helping us with the paperwork of the permit of GMO in the green house as fast as they could.
• Javier López Cepero:For his interest and time he took to help us with our interview
• Prof. Jos Raaimakers: For his micro-ecology and Pseudomonas knowledge and advice and also for providing us with a Pseudomonas strain.
• drs. Bouke de Vos, press officer of Wageningen UR, for help and advice regarding media matters.
• dr.ir. Mark van Passel: For his enthusiasm, support and advice during all our iGEM project.
• Luud Clercx: For his interest and time he took to help us with our interview
• Kaushik Rangarajan:For his interest and time he took to help us with our interview
• Niels Zondervans:For his advice on the choice of modelling tools
• Sophia Wang: For helping us with coding the Wiki and her advice and support as a past iGEM member (XMU_China 2012).
• Michiel Karrenbelt gave advice and supported us from the beginning to the end.
• Rob Ramaker, journalist, for writing an article on the team and spreading the word.
• Adithi Ravikumar. She provided advice on video edition .
• Joris Koenders, who borrowed us a microphone for our videos.
• Professor Tsuey-Ching Yang, National Yang-Ming University: For providing Stenotrophomonas strains.
• Victor de Lorenzo’s laboratory in Madrid: For providing KT2440 strain and SEVA plasmids.