Biobricks
With our project we hope it can contribute to the scientific and iGEM community, by opening new horizons in plant synthetic biology. For instance, we have introduced the parts that we have created on the Parts Registry page so other teams can use our work. The parts that we have made are only inducible by high CO2 concentrations.
Next Navarra Biogalaxy teams
Is our desire that the next Navarra_BG team will continue with the improvement of the actual biosensor that we have made, so it could be used as a real biosensor.
At this moment we are in a proof of concept, this means that the modification that we do is a transitory modification in which we search which of the promoters of the Arabidopsis thaliana have a greater difference of expression between those exposed to the high concentrations of CO2 and the ones that are not (see “Proof of concept” section)
We hope that the next team can follow our lead by making a permanent modification and searching for a gene that can make the expression visible to the human eyes, an indispensable property if we want to make a sustainable and simple but effective CO2 biosensor.
New line of investigation
For instance if a team wants to continue with our idea and make a biosensor that detects any other substance, they would only have to search for a specific promoter.
As we already say, we think that using plants as biosensors opens a huge research field. (See “Proof of concept” section) This new line of investigation could be the future of the CO2 sensors, replacing the ones that we have actually at home, as they are more sustainable and easier to maintain, they need few cares and they will be a good alternative for having plants at home.
In addition, they should not be limited to detecting CO2, we could use the potential of plants as biosensors to have a variety of plants that detect different substances, such as toxic gases, derivatives of explosives or any other molecules.