Team:Cambridge/Project/Violacein

From 2009.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)
(Violacein Pigment)
(Violacein Pigments)
 
(45 intermediate revisions not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Template:Cambridge2}}<!--Do not remove the first and last lines in this page!-->
{{Template:Cambridge2}}<!--Do not remove the first and last lines in this page!-->
-
= Violacein Pigment =
+
= Violacein Pigments =
<!-- This is for the top grey / blue links bar !-->
<!-- This is for the top grey / blue links bar !-->
{{Template:Cambridgetemplatetop}}
{{Template:Cambridgetemplatetop}}
-
[[#Introduction | Introduction ]]
+
[[#Background | Background]]
-
[[# | ]]
+
[[#Design | Design]]
-
[[# | ]]
+
[[#Characterisation | Characterisation]]
-
[[# | ]]
+
-
[[# | ]]
+
{{Template:Cambridgetemplatebottom}}
{{Template:Cambridgetemplatebottom}}
-
== Introduction ==
+
== Background ==
 +
'''Violacein Biosynthesis'''
-
The Violacein pigment is produced from L-tryptophan via a pathway involving four enzymes, vioA-D. This scheme is shown below:
+
The Violacein pigment is produced from L-tryptophan via a pathway involving five enzymes, VioA-E. This forms a purple colour which remains within the individual cell colonies. This synthesis pathway is shown below:
[[Image:Violacein pigment production.jpg]]
[[Image:Violacein pigment production.jpg]]
-
As module 5 is Aqua, this gives us two different colour controlled by the four genes allowing the construction of logic gates.
+
From P.R. August, T.H. Grossman, C. Minor, M.P. Draper, I.A. MacNeil, J.M. Pemberton, K.M. Call, d. Holt, and M. S. Osbourne, Sequence Analysis and Functional Characterization of the Violacein Biosynthetic Pathway from ''Chromobacterium violaceum'', J. Mol. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2000) 2(4): 513-519. [http://www.horizonpress.com/jmmb/v2/v2n4/26.pdf]
-
== Research by previous iGem teams ==
+
The vioE is used in the step just after the vioB for the 1-2 shift of the indole ring. César Sánchez, Dr., Alfredo F. Braña, Prof. Dr., Carmen Méndez, Prof. Dr., José A. Salas, Prof. Dr. ''Reevaluation of the Violacein Biosynthetic Pathway and its Relationship to Indolocarbazole Biosynthesis'' [[http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/112732008/HTMLSTART]]
-
Previous biobricks:
+
-
{| style="color:#CCC; background-color:#3D5089;" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" border="1"
+
Further, as module 5 is Aqua, expressing the genes under different promoters will allow us to produce at least two different colours. The Sanchez paper suggests that removing vioD can produce a dark blue, while removing vio C produces a dark green. Our actual results showed that the ABDE construct produced a dark green pigment while the ABCE produced light green.
-
! Registry Code
+
-
! Team
+
-
! Sequence Description
+
-
! Notes
+
-
|- style="color:#333; background-color:#A3C3FF;" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" border="1"
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|- style="color:#333; background-color:#A3C3FF;" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" border="1"
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|
+
-
|}
+
-
== Action plan of our team ==
+
'''Vio Operon'''
 +
 
 +
Our VioA-E genes are from ''Chromobacterium voilaceum ATCC 12472'' in the pPSX vio+ plasmid. This was kindly provided by John Pemberton; Department of Microbiology and parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. (Sarovich & Pemberton (2007) Plasmid 57:306-313)
 +
 
 +
*pPSX sequence ID FJ422118
 +
*vio gene cluster complete cds AB032799 and AF172851.
 +
 
 +
=== Action plan of our team ===
Our action plan is as follows:
Our action plan is as follows:
-
:1.  
+
1. Test for violacein pigment production
 +
 
 +
2. Synthesize the violacein operon without any forbidden restriction sites. The finished gene will be BioBrick compatible and will have restriction sites around the vioC and vioD to remove these genes and form new colours.
 +
 
 +
3. Attach to the promoters of the processing system
 +
 
 +
== Design ==
 +
 
 +
The Vio operon had numerous forbidden restriction sites.  We thus had to synthesize it, removing these restriction sites and optimizing codon usage for E. coli, to create the following biobrick:
 +
 
 +
[[Image:violaceinoperon.jpg]]
 +
 
 +
As DNA2.0 very generously agreed to synthesise the entire operon for us, we designed it to include all the five genes, each preceded by a ribosome binding site, and flanked by the prefix and suffix. All forbidden restriction sites were removed from the operon. The final plan for the inserted operon is shown below:
 +
 
 +
[[Image:Design sent to DNA 2.0.PNG]]
-
== Test activity of X ==
+
This will be held under a repressible promoter on the pJexpress cloning cassette from DNA2.0. The restriction sites will allow us to easily remove the vioC and vioD which are the genes responsible for chaging pigment colour.
-
'''Mapping of Biobrick X''':
+
===Creating colours===
-
(image)
+
-
== Construct composite Biobrick X ==
+
Once the violacein biobrick arrived we expressed in in TOP10 E. coli to create the purple pigment. We then carried out two more digests to see if we could create further colours:
 +
:*BamHI and BglII = removed vioC and produced a dark green pigment
 +
:*BglII and BclI = removed vioD and produced a light green pigment
 +
Both of these new pigments were entered into the registry, along with the whole violacein operon for the purple pigment.
-
'''Plan mapping of X''':
+
== Characterisation ==
 +
=== Proof of pigment production===
 +
'''Successful Pigment Production'''
 +
We transformed Top10 with pPSX-Vio+.  After three colour eventually appeared, as shown below.  Interestingly, the pigment appears to remain within the bacteria, with little or no bleeding into the media. We took the violacein pigment bacteria (right plate in photo) out of the fridge to find that the purple colour had started to develop. They were therefore left at room temperature overnight. The colour appears to be within the bacteria, with little or no bleeding into the media. The control plate (left plate) is the untransformed TOP10 E. coli.
 +
[[Image:Cambridge Violacein Pigment.jpg | 300px]]
 +
Left: control plate - untransformed TOP10 E. coli, Right: Top10 transformed with pPSX-Vio+.
 +
'''Pigment production efficienty'''
 +
The Vio operon is currently on a very low copy number plasmid; moving it onto a higher copy number plasmid may accelerate pigment production.
 +
=== Characterisation of colour output ===
 +
We characterised the violacein pigment by carrying out the acetone extraction protocol used for carotene. The results were normalised for OD and then plotted as a graph of absorption units against wavelength:
-
(image)
+
[[Image:Vio wavelength graph.JPG]]
-
== Test colour changes by X ==
 
-
== Characterisation of Biobricks and colour output ==
 
-
== Test compatibility with other biobricks ==
 
-
<!--Do not remove the first and last lines in this page!--><div id="contentbox_bottom"></div></div>
+
<!--Do not remove the first and last lines in this page!-->{{Template:CambridgeBottom}}

Latest revision as of 12:45, 21 October 2009


Violacein Pigments

Background

Violacein Biosynthesis

The Violacein pigment is produced from L-tryptophan via a pathway involving five enzymes, VioA-E. This forms a purple colour which remains within the individual cell colonies. This synthesis pathway is shown below:

Violacein pigment production.jpg

From P.R. August, T.H. Grossman, C. Minor, M.P. Draper, I.A. MacNeil, J.M. Pemberton, K.M. Call, d. Holt, and M. S. Osbourne, Sequence Analysis and Functional Characterization of the Violacein Biosynthetic Pathway from Chromobacterium violaceum, J. Mol. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2000) 2(4): 513-519. [http://www.horizonpress.com/jmmb/v2/v2n4/26.pdf]

The vioE is used in the step just after the vioB for the 1-2 shift of the indole ring. César Sánchez, Dr., Alfredo F. Braña, Prof. Dr., Carmen Méndez, Prof. Dr., José A. Salas, Prof. Dr. Reevaluation of the Violacein Biosynthetic Pathway and its Relationship to Indolocarbazole Biosynthesis http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/112732008/HTMLSTART

Further, as module 5 is Aqua, expressing the genes under different promoters will allow us to produce at least two different colours. The Sanchez paper suggests that removing vioD can produce a dark blue, while removing vio C produces a dark green. Our actual results showed that the ABDE construct produced a dark green pigment while the ABCE produced light green.

Vio Operon

Our VioA-E genes are from Chromobacterium voilaceum ATCC 12472 in the pPSX vio+ plasmid. This was kindly provided by John Pemberton; Department of Microbiology and parasitology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. (Sarovich & Pemberton (2007) Plasmid 57:306-313)

  • pPSX sequence ID FJ422118
  • vio gene cluster complete cds AB032799 and AF172851.

Action plan of our team

Our action plan is as follows:

1. Test for violacein pigment production

2. Synthesize the violacein operon without any forbidden restriction sites. The finished gene will be BioBrick compatible and will have restriction sites around the vioC and vioD to remove these genes and form new colours.

3. Attach to the promoters of the processing system

Design

The Vio operon had numerous forbidden restriction sites. We thus had to synthesize it, removing these restriction sites and optimizing codon usage for E. coli, to create the following biobrick:

Violaceinoperon.jpg

As DNA2.0 very generously agreed to synthesise the entire operon for us, we designed it to include all the five genes, each preceded by a ribosome binding site, and flanked by the prefix and suffix. All forbidden restriction sites were removed from the operon. The final plan for the inserted operon is shown below:

Design sent to DNA 2.0.PNG

This will be held under a repressible promoter on the pJexpress cloning cassette from DNA2.0. The restriction sites will allow us to easily remove the vioC and vioD which are the genes responsible for chaging pigment colour.

Creating colours

Once the violacein biobrick arrived we expressed in in TOP10 E. coli to create the purple pigment. We then carried out two more digests to see if we could create further colours:

  • BamHI and BglII = removed vioC and produced a dark green pigment
  • BglII and BclI = removed vioD and produced a light green pigment

Both of these new pigments were entered into the registry, along with the whole violacein operon for the purple pigment.

Characterisation

Proof of pigment production

Successful Pigment Production

We transformed Top10 with pPSX-Vio+. After three colour eventually appeared, as shown below. Interestingly, the pigment appears to remain within the bacteria, with little or no bleeding into the media. We took the violacein pigment bacteria (right plate in photo) out of the fridge to find that the purple colour had started to develop. They were therefore left at room temperature overnight. The colour appears to be within the bacteria, with little or no bleeding into the media. The control plate (left plate) is the untransformed TOP10 E. coli.

Cambridge Violacein Pigment.jpg

Left: control plate - untransformed TOP10 E. coli, Right: Top10 transformed with pPSX-Vio+.

Pigment production efficienty

The Vio operon is currently on a very low copy number plasmid; moving it onto a higher copy number plasmid may accelerate pigment production.



Characterisation of colour output

We characterised the violacein pigment by carrying out the acetone extraction protocol used for carotene. The results were normalised for OD and then plotted as a graph of absorption units against wavelength:

Vio wavelength graph.JPG



Cambridge Sponsor Logo1.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo2.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo3.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo4.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo5.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo8.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo6.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo7.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo9.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo10.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo11.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo12.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo14.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo13.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo15.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo16.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo17.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo18.pngCambridge Sponsor Logo19.pngBmglab.jpg