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Team:Tokyo Tech/Iron-oxidizing bacteria
From 2009.igem.org
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Contents |
Achievement
- We cultured iron-oxidizing bacteria (Acidithiobacillus ferrooidans).
Introduciton ~Why do we need to use Iron-oxidizing bacteria for terraforming of Mars?~
Heterotrophic bacteria cannot live in native Martian environment because there are no organic matters on Mars, however autotrophic bacteria can live without organic matters.
Iron-oxidizing bacteria is autotrophic bacteria.
Iron-oxidizing bacteria gets energy by oxidizing Fe(Ⅱ).
To grow on Mars, iron-oxidizing bacteria require only energy injection of us because of composition of the Martian surface, crust and atmosphere. (リンク)
We propose culturing iron-oxidizing bacteria on Mars and producing organic matters.
Accumulation of organic matters provides habitable environment for heterotrophic bacteria (for instance, E.coli).
Material and method
Iron-oxidizing bacteria
Iron-oxidizing bacterium is a kind of autotrophic bacteria.
Iron-oxidizing bacteria reduce NAD+ to NADH by oxidizing Fe(Ⅱ).
Iron-oxidizing bacteria grow with dissolved CO2 as carbon source, not organic matters.
In laboratory, iron-oxidizing bacteria are cultured in 9K medium which contains Fe(Ⅱ) and no organic matters.
Preparation of 9K medium (for iron-oxidizing bacteria)
We Prepared following A and B solution.
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We sterilized A solution by autoclaving.
We sterilizde B solution by using filter.
We Mixed A and B solution before use.
Cultivation of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
We cultured in 9K medium at 30℃ with vigorous shaking. We used the microscope when confirmed the growth.
Result
Cultivation of A.ferrooxidans
We cultured Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (iron-oxidizing bacteria).
The medium for A.ferrooxidans was blue before cultivation owing to Fe(Ⅱ).
The presence of A.ferrooxidans changed the medium into brown one after culturing for two days.
We confirmed the growth by using microscope of 200 magnifications.
Discussion
To apply to terraforming of Mars, we have to introduce genes to iron-oxidizing bacteria. There are few methods for selecting iron-oxidizing bacteria with introduced genes, because antibiotics deactivate in culture conditions of iron-oxidizing bacteria. Some researchers succeeded in introducing genes to iron-oxidizing bacteria in the previous researches. They introduced mercury-resistance gene to iron-oxidizing bacteria and selected in the medium that contains mercury ion.
Reference
MEDIA FOORMULATIONS http://wdcm.nig.ac.jp/catalogue/ncim/document/Ncim_media.pdf
