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Team:LCG-UNAM-Mexico
From 2009.igem.org
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Our ProjectBacteriophage infection represents a major problem in the industry and research fields. The idea of being able to contend at a population level with such infections is our main motivation for the development of this years´ project (the main motivation for the development of our project this year). We plan to modify an Escherichia coli phage for the delivery of (so it can deliver) (in order to deliver) genetic material codifying a construction in defense against other phages taking advantage of some of the properties they can present. The purpose of this construction is that a bacterial population can manage to fight back the spreading of some phage by triggering on (unleashing) a cellular death response when a cell encounters an specific component of the phage. Such response will be faster than the formation process of viral particles in order to prevent (preventing) the death of the bacterial population. This population resistance can be seen as a sort of "vaccine" that will hold back the process of infection. The design of the delivery system includes the use the P4 phage and its auxiliary genes present in the P2 helper phage. In the case of the "vaccine" construct, the cellular death response will be induced by the presence of T3 or T7 RNA polymerases which will also (the same ones that will) turn on the transcription of toxines used for the degradation of DNA and RNA to stop the phage´s genetic material from assembling and scattering in the environment. Furthermore, we will implement a stochastic population model based on the basic properties of the bacterial cells and the phages such as movement, reproduction, etc., that will allow us to simulate the infection processes and quantify the efficiency of our system. A possible extensión of the system includes the expansion of an AHL signal through the quorum sensing system of Vibrio fischeri in which the population will be "warned" to prepare against the viral infection in the presence of T3 or T7. |
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