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Team:Evry/Biology/Chassis/Motivation
From 2014.igem.org
A specific chassis for specific environments: Seas & Oceans
== A duo from the sea ==
As seen in the overview our biosensors should work optimaly in native marine conditions (approximately 24-30 g/L NaCl) , a conditions for which no current chassis in iGEM is ready for.
Moreover it has to attach to sponges and stick with them without disturbing the microbiome for as long as possible.
Moreover it has to attach to sponges and stick with them without disturbing the microbiome for as long as possible.
Therefore came up the necessity to use a bacterium naturally present on the sponges, may it be an epibiont or a symbiont.
To be up to the task the bacterium should have the following properties:
To be up to the task the sponge should have the following properties:
The closest combination sponge/bacterium that could fit the requirement is Spongia Officinalis / Pseudovibrio denitrificans
To be up to the task the bacterium should have the following properties:
- be massively present on the sponge surface / avoiding being in an unfavorable position for food competition.
- be found mainly in sponges / avoid spreading to species in contact with sponges.
- be the phenotypically closest possible to a known bacterium. / avoid cell cultures difficulties.
To be up to the task the sponge should have the following properties:
- be numerously present in the ocean / avoiding putting species in danger.
- be a natural host of the bacterium / avoid adapting its microbiom to the new epibiont.
- be easily culturable in a laboratoty / avoid sopnge culture difficulties.
The closest combination sponge/bacterium that could fit the requirement is Spongia Officinalis / Pseudovibrio denitrificans
== Born to filter : Spongia officinalis ==
Spongia officinalis has been used for millennia and for various purposes: from the Greek for bathing and lining their armor with, to todays' pharmaceutical attemps to produce anticonvulsant, not even mentionning the use by Arabic physicians as early as 932 A.D of soaked sponges with narcotic drugs to placed over the patient’s nose to provide a state of anesthesia.
Its powerful filtration capacity (approximately 1200 times its volume per day) make it a perfect host for our system. But as mentionned earlier our aim is to engineer an epibiont and not the sponge itself.
Following this introduction we will both describe what is exactly Pseudovibrio denitrificans and how we turned it into a transformable/selectable-ready chassis.
Its powerful filtration capacity (approximately 1200 times its volume per day) make it a perfect host for our system. But as mentionned earlier our aim is to engineer an epibiont and not the sponge itself.
Following this introduction we will both describe what is exactly Pseudovibrio denitrificans and how we turned it into a transformable/selectable-ready chassis.
