From 2007.igem.org

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Revision as of 10:10, 9 August 2007

Edinburgh > Yoghurt

Introduction | Applications | Design | Status | References

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Design

Vanillin Project

One of our aims for iGEM is to construct a synthetic pathway to produce vanillin from the amino acid tyrosine. There are five genes in this pathway, which are present in three different organisms.

Vanillin Biosynthesis Pathway

The Sam5 and Sam8 genes are from the microorganism Saccharothrix espanaensis. Sam8 encodes a tyrosine ammonia lyase enzyme, and Sam5 a hydroxylse enzyme. These genes are being kindly doanted by Anton Linnenbrink from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Germany.

The caffeic acid-3-0-methyltransferase gene is part of the lignin biosynthesis pathway present in plants. Our initial plan is to extranct the gene out of Alfalfa using a PCR based method. However if this method does not work we may attempt to purify COMT cDNA or have the gene artifically synthesised by GeneArt.

Both fcs and ech genes are present in a variety of microorganisms. After much searching we have identified ech and fcs genes in Pseudomonas fluorescens, which have a minimal number of forbidden restriction sites. The PstI site within ech is located at the 3' terminal and shall be mutated out during the PCR amplification of the gene from P. fluorescens.

Introduction | Applications | Design | Status | References