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Team:Harvard/Shewie
From 2008.igem.org
Shewanella oneidensis MR-1
Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is a gram-negative facultative anaerobe (Myers and Myers 1997). Under anaerobic conditions, it reduces a number of electron acceptors such as MN(IV). This ability can be harnessed by microbial fuel cells (MFC) to produce an electric current (Bretschger et al. 2007). When the bacteria are grown anaerobically in the anode chamber of an MFC, they release electrons onto the anode, creating an electrical current. These diverse respiratory capabilities require a complex electron transport systems, including 39 c-type cytochromes (Heidelberg et al. 2002). These interesting characteristics of S. oneidensis MR-1 make it an important model organism for both studies of bioremediation as well as biotechnology applications.
Molecular Biology with Shewanella oneidensis
The Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 genome was sequenced in 2002, greatly increasing its usefulness as a model organism. It was found that it had a 4,969,803 base pair circular chromosome and a 161,613 base pair plasmid (Heidelberg et al. 2002). When doing cloning in Shewanella oneidensis, it has also been shown that plasmids with p15A origins replicate freely, whereas plasmids with a pMB1 origin of replication do not (Myers and Myers 1997). [We further found that …]. Shewanella grows at 30 ºC, can be electroporated (see protocol in our Notebook) and forms round orange pink colonies on plates. It is resistant to ampicillin, but other resistance markers work (Daad). Together, these characteristics make S. oneidensis MR-1 a genetically tractable organism good for exploring the possibilities of regulated bacterial electrical output.
Picture of Shewanella Colonies
