Team:Northwestern/Project

The cornerstone of synthetic biology is the characterization of genetic parts for predictable action in an engineered biochemical system. Currently this characterization of parts is limited to the “Model Organisms” of synthetic biology: E. coli, yeast, and C. elegans. While this work has been very successful in pioneering research in synthetic biology, characterization in a given model organism such as the primary bacterial model, E. coli, does not necessarily hold true across all bacteria. Therefore, the majority of research overlooks the possible benefits of synthetic work in other bacteria such as Streptomyces, Pseudomonas, and Nitrosomonas.

The main reason for this omission is that initiating work in these organisms is very challenging due to the present difficulty in attempting to transform these non-model strains. Standard protocols have not been developed in all bacteria for incorporation of synthetic DNA through transformation due to the difficulty in developing these protocols. The development of these protocols can be very unrewarding as the investment in time is high, the success rate is often low, and the incentive is small since very few parts are characterized for non-model strains.

NU Models seeks to crack open the field relating to non-model strains. We bypass transformation difficulties by utilizing a cell-free system to characterize a number of promoters and RBSs to incentivize future work in promising non-model strains. Past literature has indicated that characterization in cell-free systems in E. coli has a high correlation to characterization in living cell systems. This indicates that cell-free systems may also be a predictive model for living cells of non-model strains of bacteria.

Our organisms which are non-model in the field of synthetic biology are actually model organisms in their own fields. Streptomyces species have long been a source of novel antibiotics. The impressive secondary metabolism of Streptomyces species is a unique feature to this Genus and provides potential applications impossible in E. coli. Pseudomonas has long been used in agriculture on crops to outcompete other organisms. Nitrosomonas is the model for obligate ammonia autotrophs and is used in bioremediation.

The development of systems characterizing parts for these organisms is important for the development of new biotechnologies. The innate skill-set of these non-model organisms have potential to allow work that E. coli is ill-equipped to handle.