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Team:Paris Bettencourt/Project/Odor Library
From 2014.igem.org
Stop And Smell The Roses
| BACKGROUND Synthetic enzymes can produce odors that humans experience directly, without special instruments. The banana and wintergreeen smell BioBricks are iGEM icons, and a favorite way to introduce genetic engineering. Like colors, smells can be combined to create new experiences. An expanded library of easy-to-use odor enzymes would take synthetic biology to new audiences for creativity, beauty and fun! |
AIMS We want to standardize and simplify existing smell-producing BioBricks for banana, wintergreen, lemon and rain. We want to create new BioBricks for the aromas of popcorn and jasmine. A useful palette of genetic odors should follow standard organization principles and work "right out of the box" for anyone who wants to transform and play with odor genes. |
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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