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Team:Cambridge-JIC/Project
From 2014.igem.org
Overview
Sensing is an essential aspect of engineering: we need information about the world to make intelligent efforts to manipulate it. Biosensors allow us to detect compounds and the environment using genetically-enhanced life forms, harnessing specialised functions evolved over millions of years. At present, the creation of such biosensors requires expert knowledge and dedicated facilities. What if it were possible to create customised biosensors in the comfort of one's home? Plants as biosensors have the potential to make this a reality – vastly improving access to the technology with the further benefit of being inexpensive and self-reproducing. Marchantia polymorpha is a plant chassis that makes an exceptional candidate:
• It’s transformable; it can be modified for characteristics that suit a range of applications.
• It’s small, and transformant lines can be shipped as spores and stored for at least 1 year.
• It’s fast growing, with a one month generation cycle dominated by a haploid phase, and a transformation protocol that takes less than 2 weeks.
We are introducing Marchantia polymorpha as a flexible, open source biosensor.
mösbi is a modular, open-source biosensing platform developed using a novel, user-friendly plant chassis: Marchantia polymorpha. The mösbi biosensors consist of 3 modules: input, output and processing. The user is free to mix-and-match the modules to create custom biosensors simply by crossing the chosen modules’ pre-transformed plant lines and collecting the progeny. mösbi's open-source nature allows users to create and modify modules ensuring its continuous evolution. In farming, homes, and education - mösbi will change the way we view biosensors.
Our Design
Our genetic framework consists of three modules: input, processing and output. These modules are linked using transcription factors and inducible promoters. By interchanging inputs and outputs, Mösbi can be designed and adapted to sense myriad conditions or chemicals indicated by reporters that suit the user context. The flexibility of this modular framework allows many devices to be constructed from the same library of components.
Introducing Marchantia
Marchantia polymorpha is a liverwort, primitive member of the bryophyte (non-vascular) group. It can be found worldwide, from tropical to arctic climates and urban areas. It grows in damp habitats, such as banks of pools and rivers, bogs, fens and dune slacks. After fires, Marchantia rapidly colonizes the burnt ground, restoring an eco-stystem. The plant possesses thalli are a few centimeters wide, small translucent root-like structures called rhizoids and characeristic umbrella-shaped reproductive structures (archegonia) earning it the 'umbrella liverwort' nickname.
Marchantia is haploid in its growth phase.
Our dream is to produce input, processing and output modules in separate plants which can be combined through Mendelian crossing. We want to make plant biosensors accessible to the home enthusiast in the same way that electronics has been made accessible by Arduino.
Project Description and History
Content
References
- Overall project summary
- Project Details
- Materials and Methods
- The Experiments
- Results
- Data analysis
- Conclusions
