CyanoSpectre

Cyanobacteria are fast-emerging as effective chassis for the sustainable synthesis of organic compounds. They are currently being used to produce plastics, proteins, biofuels, and more. Cyanophages are cyanobacteria-infecting viruses that regulate cyanobacterial populations in nature. This makes them a promising vehicle for cyanobacterial engineering. To aid scientists and iGEM teams who work with cyanobacteria, this project aims to create a cyanophage toolkit for their use. Our project will create a “ghost phage” that can recognize and bind marine cyanobacteria. A minimal set of cyanophage genes will be assembled into a phagemid vector that can replicate in E. coli and produce the structural proteins of the phage. To allow our phage to be utilized to immobilize modified cyanobacteria, a biotin-tagged variant of the capsid will also be created. Further development of the phage toolkit will enable it to be used as a DNA delivery vehicle in cyanobacterial engineering.