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Team:Paris Bettencourt/Project/Odor Library
From 2014.igem.org
Stop And Smell The Roses
| BACKGROUND For "Smell the Roses," we created a library of pleasant odors in order to understand human perception of smell. Similar to how all colors can be created by a combination of the primary colors, the odors we perceive can be based on primary odor categories. We hope to create a database of gene sequences that can be assembled in E. coli correlating to these primary odors, thereby being able to produce a large range of odors. |
AIMS Escherichia coli, a bacterium commonly used in lab, naturally produces the odor of stool. The pleasant odor library aims to not only eliminate the unpleasant smell in E. coli, but also to produce appreciable ones, like those of butter, rain, jasmine, banana, and lemon. |
RESULTS We created BioBricks coding for sequences for different enzymes to nullify the bad odor produced by E. coli and produce the smells that compose the main odor categories perceived by humans. The BioBricks submitted to be BioBrick registry for this portion of our project were: XXX |
| Aims and Achievement | Introduction | Results | Methods |
Aims and Achievement
Here we present the design of an odor palette. It is composed of BioBricks containing coding sequences for different enzymes known to catalyze reactions that yield volatile compounds with characteristic smells. We included smells with different tonalities in order to explore the aromas resulting from different combinations of smelly units. The tonality of each smell is categorized as butter, balminess, citrus, non-citrus fruit and herbal. These cover half of the main odor categories perceivable to human beings.
Introduction
There are complex relations among the stereochemistry of volatile compounds, their ratio within a particular mix, the amount of active olfactory receptors expressed in the smeller, as well as the distribution, and interaction of the different olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). Odors spark neurochemical signals that are processed in different areas of the brain; they trigger complex cognitive processes that affect emotional responses such as motivation and memory. Although the precise molecular mechanisms behind odor perception have not been fully understood, there has been significant advance in the biosynthesis of organic volatile compounds using bacterial and fungal systems.
Results
Proper BioBrick characterization is needed before tinkering with expression levels; the possibility to change ribosomal binding sites according to the desired expression is included in our design. We would also like to develop auto-inducible smelly systems, as well as broaden the available tones in our palette.
Methods
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