Social media provides iGEM teams an easy way to stay updated on the progress and activities of other iGEM teams. So, it was on Instagram where team UiO first noticed the post from UniCamp team which showed that they were also working with bacterial cellulose, with bacteria from the same genus i.e. Komagataeibacter. Hence, it was only natural to set up an online meeting to discuss our projects, challenges and how we could contribute to each other’s project. We then proceeded to call our partnership “Cellu-minati”.
(In the words of UiO team) Troubleshooting for missing parts During the first meeting with the Unicamp team, we learned that due to there being some parts that they had not received yet that were critical for them to proceed with project specific wetlab. Hence, while they were waiting for that part, we worked together with them for ways to get their genes of interest. The gene they were missing was LexRO. LexRO is essentially a fusion protein in which the DNA-bindig domain, repressor LexA408 of mutated Escherichia coli is fused with the blue light sensory domain RsLOV from Rhodobacter sphaeroides (purple bacteria). Our suggestion is to fuse the repressor LexA408 with RsLOV by molecular biology methods:
We worked to make a substantial educational contribution that can teach students about our iGEM projects, and also teach them about molecular biology at the level of the understanding of the students we were meeting. As both of our works revolve around the production of bacterial cellulose with the genus Komagataeibacter, we decided that it would be best to extract an easy teachable molecular biology lesson from that. We decided that we can teach a lesson on how bacteria can produce polymers (like cellulose) from monomers (like glucose), via an experimental demonstration of bacterial cellulose formation and the aid of an infographic. This is explained further in our Education and Communication page.
We wanted to ensure that the students we were meeting could follow the scientific demonstrations we were performing for them, and also have a tool to recollect the information that they were given on the day if they wanted to later on. So, we designed infographics for an elementary school level and high school level. The high school level was used for the education collaboration and it was produced in two versions: English and Norwegian. The English version was delivered to our partners to use for education outreach on their side of the globe.
In one of our meetings, the UiO team raised its interest in the possibility of exploring a mathematical model that could predict changes in the growth and cellulose production due to changes in the composition of the culture medium, thus being able to evaluate the efficiency of production of your copolymer of interest. The team from Norway uses the bacterium Komagataeibacter xylinus for the development of its project, an organism of the same genus as the strain adopted in Cellulopolis, which has genetic and metabolic similarities. Therefore, our team, which was already working on metabolic modeling for cellulose production optimization analysis, proposed the development of models capable of answering the questions established by UiO. This can be further seen on their modelling page.
Education is considered a very important aspect for Cellu-minati teams, so several collaborations were builded up for this purpose, among them, we emphasize the development of a game that presents the metabolism of komagataeibacter for educational purposes. The App proposes the interaction of the interlocutor with growth events and cellulose production of the bacteria, so that it is possible to change some of its metabolic parameters and observe the triggered phenotypic effects. This app was shared with the UiO team and they tested it on students of various levels, from elementary school to university level students.
Working with no model organism can be a bit challenging, considering the difficulty of finding relevant information about the specie and even to adapt protocols and procedure for better response of our chassis. Taking this into account, the UiO team found some obstacles in the Komagataeibacter transformation, which our team was troubleshooting. In this case, our action was to advise them on different concentrations of antibiotics that could be tested the growth of the bacteria and enable the team the organism transformation.
Besides our tangible collaborations, we have also collaborated in several zoom meetings to update each other on our projects, and also meet other teams working with bacterial cellulose. We have also kept in contact with each other regularly through our “Cellu-minati” WhatsApp group, which has also been a useful tool to organize quick meetings and post inquiries.
The jamboree is a highly awaited moment by the iGEM teams, but it can also be a period that generates some trepidation, based on the expectations of being able to present with quality all the work developed during the competition. In view of these aspirations, and in an attempt to contribute to improving our pitches, the proposal is that Cellu-minati teams collaborate with each other, and practice together for our presentations to the iGEM judge. Even after the WIKI freeze, both teams have agreed to continue their collaborative partnership and hence coach each other, evaluating the group's performance in various aspects and providing tips and advice to improve the final presentation.
