Handbook

OVERVIEW

As mentioned in Partnership, the iGEM Phototroph Community was founded by the grand-prize winning team, iGEM Marburg and top-ten-ranking iGEM Bielefeld in 2021, with the aim of bringing together teams working with phototrophic organisms in the iGEM competition, including cyanobacteria, microalgae and higher plants. Their vision was to open further dialogue and have teams support each other in troubleshooting, project ideation and more!

UBCO iGEM and ASU iGEM partnered to revive the community and organize the development of Phototroph Handbook Volume II, after obtaining feedback from other Phototroph teams on what additions should be made in 2022! Teams detailed growth and cultivation of cyanobacteria and plants, transformation of microalgae, refining assembly standards, detailed the evolution of phototrophs and other novel gene delivery methods. In total, eight teams contributed to writing Volume II additions, as well as video protocols to supplement the text!

CONTRIBUTION

Our team provided extensive contribution to Section 2.3.3, outlining a more comprehensive background on cyanobacteria and their genome, lab strains and biosafety considerations like cyanotoxins. We also further detailed our strain, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, from growth conditions to experimenting with cyanobacteria. This included the importance of mother cultures, obtaining growth curves and CFU plates, in which we provided figures from our own measurements. Furthermore, our team introduced the CyanoGate Modular Cloning Suite, a set of parts validated in cyanobacteria following Golden Gate Assembly standards, which can be found under Section 4.6.

The following teams contributed to Phototroph Handbook Volume II:

• UBCO iGEM
• ASU iGEM
• HKU iGEM
• UBC iGEM
• Worldshaper-Shanghai iGEM
• iGEM Thessaly
• Hopkins iGEM
• SUNY Oneonta iGEM

Our team proudly displays all four re-designed Phototroph Badges, including Community, Presentation, Handbook, and Organization. The final one is exclusive to UBCO iGEM and ASU iGEM for reviving the community and spending significant time planning the various events, managing the Slack Workspace, drafting additions and making other general changes to Phototroph Handbook Volume II.

HANDBOOK VOLUME II

The Phototroph Handbook Volume II can be viewed and downloaded below for iGEM teams and bioenthusiasts to reference! The Handbook can also be found in the Phototroph Community Slack workspace, as well as on the iGEM Plant Subcommittee webpage! Their representatives have agreed to add this resource for future teams to benefit from! This will certainly expand upon our impact and reach, as well as bring new teams to the Slack workspace for next iGEM season and beyond.