This year, we found one precious partner who accompanied us throughout our journey : the Chinese team UESTC_BioTech (https://2022.igem.wiki/uestc-biotech/partnership)

As one of our members knew someone in their team, we decided to get in touch and see if it was possible to collaborate. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that they were using the same chassis as us, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. So we had various meetings on Zoom to discuss our respective projects over the summer and it was clear that a partnership between our two teams was possible in biology as well as in modeling and Human Practices.

Their project consists of modifying the microalgae to produce more lipids that are essential for the production of biofuel. More precisly , thanks to the CRISPR/Cas9 system, they wanted to manipulate lipid metabolism related genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and so enrich lipid productivity while maintaining culture efficiency.

In the midterm of our respective projects

We helped each other with the biology aspect :

We helped them create a killswitch as a safety device for their Chlamydomonas strain based on our university's 2020 project. [You will find more details in the Biology part improvement of our wiki].

On their side, they provided us with a CRISPR system designed to eliminate the Psy1 gene of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, in order to decrease the production of chlorophyll and thus to decrease the taste of our algae. Indeed, the taste of our algae was an important part of our project. They provided us with the bibliographic references, the plasmid and the locus for the sgRNA in order to realize this.

McCarthy, Sarah S., et al. « White Mutants of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Are Defective in Phytoene SynthaseSequence Data from This Article Have Been Deposited with the EMBL/GenBank Data Libraries under Accession Nos. AY604700, PSY (137c) CDNA; AY604701, PSY (137c) Genomic DNA; AY604702, PSY (S1D2) Genomic DNA; and AY604703, PDS (137c) CDNA. » Genetics, vol. 168, no 3, novembre 2004, p. 1249‑57. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.104.030635.


Greiner, Andre, et al. « Targeting of Photoreceptor Genes in Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii via Zinc-Finger Nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9 ». The Plant Cell, vol. 29, no 10, novembre 2017, p. 2498‑518. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00659.Using the same chassis, we also exchanged tips on how to perform some experiments on Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (transformation for example).

During the month of September

They provided us with data from their laboratory experiments to allow us to consolidate our model of the growth curve of C.reinhartii that we detail in the modeling part.

In the late September

They kindly agreed to participate in one of our NAWI Tv episodes on GMO legislation in the world by presenting their country's legislation. It was important for us to have several opinions and show the differences but also the similarities between each country on a subject that has been debated for several years

We interacted for several weeks with this lovely team and also helped each other in the realization of our respective projects. It was a pleasure to work with them and we hope we would be able to meet them in person in Paris. Thank you for these pleasant exchanges!