Jiangnan-China

In the China iGEM Online Meetup which was organized by GXU-China, Jiangnan-China, Jilin-China, and NPU-China, we introduced our projects respectively and asked questions about each team regarding wet lab and modeling techniques. During the virtual meet-up with the members of the league, we realized that iGEM Jiangnan-China team has a similar approach to tackling freshwater acidification with us. Thus, we set up a tight relationship with Jiangnan-China. They also modified E. coli against the acidic environment, but in a different way. We learned their modeling method and exchanged our plasmids Pasr-mcherry-pSB1C3.gb with their plasmids pRSFDuet-CFA2 because we want our XeR protein to have better anti-acidity capacity.

Freshwater Bioremediation Alliance

(Nanjing_NFLS, XJTLU - CHINA, Nanjing-China, CHINA-FAFU, GXU-China)

Alliance Introduction

All the teams in the alliance have similar project content about water bioremediation, whatever to adjust the pH, biodegrade the waste, decrease the concentration of toxic metal ion, etc. We use the alliance as a platform to share our experience with other teams, co-organize some fresh water relevant events, and solve many problems together in this long season.

Alliance slogan: “For us, for water, for future.”

Initiators:

Nanjing_NFLS

They aim to utilize bioremediation to eliminate MC-LR (liver carcinogen) by using a specific degradation enzyme: MlrA. In order to optimize the gene expression, they link mlrA to inaK (ice nucleation protein), producing a cell-surface display system of the enzyme.

XJTLU-CHINA

Application of biofilm in industrial water treatment to remove heavy metal ions. Procedure: chemical precipitation membrane filtration ion exchange adsorption Product: biofilm adsorption filter

Current Teams:

Nanjing-China

Innovative biofuels based on the engineered Shewanella by nano-silver. Goal: to produce a novel biofuel cell that is environmentally friendly.

CHINA-FAFU

Using genetically modified phaeodactylum tricornutum to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from domestic sewage.

GXU-China

Blue-green light regulated sewage treatment bacterium preparation based on Bacillus subtilis. To remove nitrogen and nitrogenous organic compound from domestic, industrial, aquaculture and irrigation wastewater.

UM_Macau

To tackle the problem of freshwater acidification and ocean acidification using light-driven protein Xenorhodopsin

NPU-CHINA

Their work will allow the design of biocatalysts for ligninolytic enzyme engineering and provide new insight into the remediation of PAHs by combined ligninolytic enzymes.

Initial cooperation ideas

1. Biosafety graphics: each team demonstrates how they addressed safety issues in their projects. This can serve as a way for the public to learn how safety can be ensured in the development of a synbio product, and help build their trust in genetic approaches. The words in the graphics will be in English.
2. Education short videos: present basic and general information on synbio and biosafety to the public. The narration will be in English, and we hope to create subtitles in more languages to make them accessible to more people.
3. Co-Interview: Nanjing_NFLS will contact public health professionals and environment officials for an online co-interview. Unfortunately, the Q&A might only be in Chinese, but we welcome international teams to send in questions in advance and we will ask them in Chinese for you!
4. Freshwater Bioremediation Handbook: each team documents their meaningful experience working on environmental issues, including HP methods, safety issues, and any resources or troubles. We hope this can serve as a reference for future teams. The handbook will be in English.

Ice-breaking meet-up of FBA

We had the ice-breaking online meetup with the other alliance members on 7.27. All the team in the alliance shared their profound project content which not only surprised us that there are so many excellent iGEM teams all over China but also inspired us in many ways like their project goal, their modeling designing, and their mature teamwork distribution.

PuiChing_Macau

Due to the high similarity and close location, we invited Puiching_Macau to be our partner. Their project is about adjusting the pH of plants environment and control the hormone release of the plants. Thus, we not only exchange lab work materials, but also co-worked with them to organized a series of events with them.

PuiChing 2021 plasmid exchanging

In order to allow the E. coli to survive for a long time, we introduced the acid tolerance gene - fabB from the 2021 iGEM team PuiChing_Macau into our design. They designed this gene based on the K2588009 protein sequence Hamburg 2018. It involves the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) to enhance the UFAs content in membrane lipids. This mechanism enables E. coli to grow at acidic pH.

Co-buiding of HydroAqua iGEM League

We, UM_Macau, along with Puiching_Macau, were the initiators of HydroAqua iGEM league. We invited team William&Mary, NNU-China, and Tec-CEM into our league. All the teams in the league have similar project content— we all try to improve the water environment. We set up this league at the aim of solving nowadays hydroponic and aquaponic problems using our own projects.

Webinar manual (email) link

Co-organizing online conference “HydroAqua Simulator” on 11 Sep

Throughout September, iGEM_Pui Ching and our team gathered a league called the “HydroAqua iGEM League 2022”. The purposes of this league are to exchange knowledge on the sustainability of the ecosystem with other teams and to enhance the cooperation and communication between each team. We used the decoupled multi-loop aquaponics system as our basic framework. Teams can use their own creativity and imagination or techniques involved in their projects to further improve the system and promote sustainable agriculture.

On the 11th of September, we co-hosted a conference called “HydroAqua Simulator” with team Pui Ching_Macau. We invited different teams from all over the world (Tec CEM, NNU China and W&M University) whose projects also focus on plant growth and water treatment. In this conference, each team introduces their own iGEM project and then presents possible sustainable applications of their project in the decoupled multi-loop aquaponics system. For example, our applications include utilizing EM bacteria to control pathogens, monitoring pH and water maintenance, using hormone binding domain to stop hormone inhibition in seed germination state, detecting bacterial level by chassis analysis tools and mathematical models, and applying biofilter of EDC and antibiotic free selection marker in order to improve water quality and plant safety. After the webinar, we combined ideas from each iGEM team and used bioengineering techniques to construct an aquaponics proposal to improve existing shortcomings of the current aquaponics market.

Photo gallery for the online conference: