Team:PennState/diauxie/progress

Diauxie Elimination

Introduction

The System

Strategies

Progress

Conclusions

Parts

References

NHR Biosensors

NHR Introduction

Phthalate Biosensor

BPA Biosensor

Each test construct (promoter + GFP) was cloned into the pSB1A2 plasmid and transformed into several E. coli strains: DH5α, W3110 ∆xylB-G, and W3110 ∆xylB-R. Preliminary induction studies were run to find the optimal induction time and to analyze the linear range for OD versus fluorescence.

Test Construct

Tests were then run to compare the levels of induction with various mixes of xylose, glucose and xylose+glucose. The goal was to obtain a noticeably higher level of induction with the xylose/glucose mixture when compared to the wild-type construct.

"Smart Fold" Pthalate Biosensor DH5a fluoresence

"Nuclear Fusion" BPA Biosensor W3110 fluoresence

These graphs show the normalized fluoresence strength for PN, P1, and P3 xylose promoters induced with xylose, glucose, and a mixture. The W3110 cells have xylE and xylG knocked out while DH5α still contain the natural xylose transport and metabolim. This data shows that there is little effect on the fluorescence intensity using strains with xylE and xylG sequences deleted. Our next step is to transform these promoters into E. coli cells with deleted xylose metabolism and transporters.

"Smart Fold" Pthalate Biosensor PN induction time

"Nuclear Fusion" BPA Biosensor P1 induction time

"Nuclear Fusion" BPA Biosensor P3 induction time

The cells were induced iduced with sugars and then allowed to grow with sample being removed every half hour. The goal was to find the induction time where fluorescence starts to level off. The intensity has leveled off and begins to drop after 7.5 hours so this was the growth time for all future tests.

"Smart Fold" Pthalate Biosensor PN linear range

"Nuclear Fusion" BPA Biosensor P1 linear range

"Nuclear Fusion" BPA Biosensor P3 linear range

The three promoters analyzed show linear behavior in the optical density range. The strength of fluorescence did change depending on the promoter. With this information we were able to accurately normalize fluorescence data.