Team:University of Sheffield /Project

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Overall project

Project Overview

The aim is to engineer a biological machine that will sense microbial contamination of drinking water using quorum sensing. Quorum sensing systems use sensing proteins in the membrane (histidine-kinases in this case) to detect molecules excreted by the bacteria’s own species. After detection in the membrane, a phosphate signal is passed down pathway, causing a DNA regulatory effect. Each species also has its own corresponding quorum-producing protein. In Vibrio cholerae the sensing protein is CqsS and the quorum-producing protein CqsA, and in Legionella they are LqsS and LqsA.

History of development

Project Details

Parts submitted to the Registry

Modelling

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 ====Project Overview====
-|The aim is to engineer a biological machine that will sense microbial contamination of drinking water using quorum sensing.
+The aim is to engineer a biological machine that will sense microbial contamination of drinking water using quorum sensing. Quorum sensing systems use sensing proteins in the membrane (histidine-kinases in this case) to detect molecules excreted by the bacteria’s own species. After detection in the membrane, a phosphate signal is passed down pathway, causing a DNA regulatory effect. Each species also has its own corresponding quorum-producing protein. In Vibrio cholerae the sensing protein is CqsS and the quorum-producing protein CqsA, and in Legionella they are LqsS and LqsA.
-The organism would initially be designed to sense a wide range of pathogens – the coliform bacterias, Escherichia coli, Shigella, Campylobacter, Salmonella enteritidis, Helicobacter sp., Vibrio cholera, Mycobacterium avium and the protozoans Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium sp., Cyclospora sp. and Toxoplasma sp. These cause a range of serious diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, cholera and many gastrointestinal infections.
 ====History of development====