Written by Yerin Seo & Minkyu Song, Supported by Minjung Shin
In the parts BBa_K380007 made by the team iGEM10_Stockholm, Superoxide dismutase 1(SOD1) protein is utilized as recruiting higher copper contents and making more stable protein to find remedy of Vitiligo. Compared to this project considering the aspect of cell protection from oxidative damage, we exploit another character of SOD1, the algal bloom cleaner which is focused on cell killing.
According to the study about the effect of hydrogen peroxide on natural phytoplankton and bacterioplankton, they found that hydrogen peroxide improves the water quality like transparency and turbidity and suppresses algal bloom inducing organisms with only 10mg L-1(1). Other references also indicate that hydrogen peroxide can alleviate toxic cyanobacterial effect and act as a safener for algal bloom(2).
Hydrogen peroxide was determined to show potent possibility to act as a algaecide, when applied in the Lake Okeechobee waterway(3). The addition of hydrogen peroxide just once resulted in about 24h persistence, whilst the extra application of it improved the effect of algal bloom-treatment. It can be concluded that the constant addition of hydrogen peroxide can prevent algal bloom and even enhance the power to make the water physically and biologically transparent.
Hydrogen peroxide can be generated by superoxide dismutase 1(SOD1) with oxygen formation. By constantly producing SOD1 through CFS(Cell free system), we can offer devices that can function as a harmless algicide with high productivity. This alteration of usage purpose of hydrogen peroxide can provide a revealing insight into other followed iGEMers, especially in the way of cell free, and build up an infrastructure at algal bloom study area with synthetic biology.