General Description
Our team has designed and tested various biosensors for C. vulgaris,
using inducible promoters and recombinases. Inducible promoters are
triggered only at certain conditions, working as biosensors. Our team
has further developed the inducible promoters into bio-switch by
utilizing recombinases, thereby creating C. vulgaris strain that can
constantly express certain genes once the switch is turned on. The
detailed structure of the biosensors and switches is described below.
In this project, two types of inducible promoters, pHsp70A (Kropat et
al., 1995), pCnAFP (Kim et al., 2020), two types of recombinases,
phiC31 (Thomson et al., 2010) and Cre (Sauer & Henderson, 1988), and a
quorum sensing system, pTra(4X)::m35S (You et al., 2006), are tested
in C. vulgaris. The expression of these bio-bricks has been tested in
eukaryotic cells but has not been tested specifically for C. vulgaris.
The purpose of this project is to validate the expression of these
bio-bricks for C. vulgaris and to utilize them for the development of
efficient biosensors and switches.
Our research and development will not stop at biosensors and
bio-switches. We designed a bio-switch using an inducible promoter and
recombinase, and also designed a quorum sensing system for microalgae.
Using these biosensors together, replacing GFP with toxin or
antitoxin, our team’s final goal is to develop an effective
biocontainment system for genetically modified microalgae-bacteria
consortia that can be used in wastewater treatment systems.
