We created a dictionary along with iGEM GO Paris-Saclay and additional contributors: iGEM Stockholm, iGEM Aalto-Helsinki, iGEM Chalmers-Gothenburg, and iGEM Uppsala. The dictionary was created to help new iGEMers within the iGEM community, who do not have a background within biology and may need assistance with biological terminologies they may encounter throughout their iGEM journey. This dictionary is a first edition available here and can be further amended by adding new terms and creating new editions via the InDesign file provided on the Communication page. See the Communication and Partnership pages for more info.

We have added four new parts to the registry for future iGEM teams to use. These include 3 new genes that encode for glyphosate degrading enzymes via two different pathways- the sarcosine pathway and the aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) pathway. The fourth part is a 5’UTR where we integrated the Ribosome binding site for Bacillus subtilis.

• gox-A (Part: BBa_K4373002): The gox-A gene encodes for a glyphosate degrading enzyme found in environmental samples. For our use we optimized codon usage in our expression organism Bacillus subtilis.

• gox-B (Part: BBa_K4373001): The Glyphosate oxidoreductase or gox-B protein sequence was initially taken from NCBI genbank and codon optimized with its sister protein sequence gox-A and is a glyphosate degrading protein.

• CP-Lyase( Part: BBa_K4373003): CP-Lyase primarily catalyzes the cleavage of C-P bonds from glyphosate which otherwise forms organophosphate and sarcosine. Multimeric domain. For our project, we want to utilize its function by cloning into B. subtilis.

• 5’-UTR of citB gene ( Part: BBa_K4373005): This part is included as part of the citB gene which is considered as an always active gene¹.

Honeybees are highly social organisms who distribute tasks like brood rearing and foraging among different individuals. The loss of forager populations creates stress on general hive dynamics including food supply loss, unstable labor division and precocious foraging. As we have focused on the effect of pesticides on honeybees, we created a model that predicts the possible bee hive collapse based on shortage of food supply due to the pesticide-related decline of foragers.

Bioinformatics is something not all iGEMers are familiar with or even like doing. To make it easier for participants new to the modeling work, we designed an interactive model basis. Together with iGEM Rochester, we agree that how project outcomes are displayed strongly influences how it’s received and thus the impact it may have. A model with interactive features thereby greatly contributes to an increased comprehensibility for the user. With the generated tool, we hope to help future iGEMs teams to overcome difficulties in the visualization of their designed model. To access the code for the model just right click and inspect element on the model page.

Showing that our recombinant protein is functionally active (i.e. degrading glyphosate) is an important part of our proof-of-concept. We therefore performed a minimal inhibitory concentration assay (MIC) (see experiments) to find out whether strains that had successfully integrated our constructs had a higher glyphosate tolerance. Since glyphosate inhibits aromatic amino acids formation², we required a amino acid-free medium to test our glyphosate dehydrogenase system. As LB and growth media contain tryptone, we used minimal media for our MIC assay.