From 2007.igem.org

Western Meeting Notes

5/14 Overview of goals for the next two weeks

Begin Experimentation

Educational Information

Literature Research

5/15

Reviewed PowerPoint presentations of 2006 project to gain an understanding of the Pancake Problem.

Viewed Bruce's presentation on the mutation of the hix sites

Developed plan to build testing constructs of mutant hix sites, arriving this afternoon from Davidson by FedEx

Will build pLac - hix(n) - BBa_S03644 (RFPrev-RBSrev) - hix(n) on AmpR plasmid. Details to follow.

Note -- The above plan has changed as of Tuesday afternoon because of availability of parts.

BBa_S03644 is not available in our lab and the exact forward equivalent appears (amazingly) to not exist anywhere. However, there is an RBS - RFP in the Registry (BBa_I13502) which is a preassembled combination of a weaker RBS (BBa_B0034) and RFP (BBa_E1010). There is also a full positive control assembly (BBa_J04450) of pLac - B0034 - E1010 - Term. We will need to be careful to use the same parts in our Hix(n) assemblies so that we can test for only the functionality of our construct with the mutated Hix sites included.

5/16

We have cultures that were grown overnight of the Hix(n). We received the sequencing data on the Karen's and Bruce's Hix(n) constructs (from 5/14 report) and are analyzing the data to find the mutations. Lab work continues.

5/17

Karen developed a modified Green Fuorescent protein, GFP, by splitting the DNA for GFP, reversing one portion and adding Hix sites to it. This way, GFP can only be produced when the reversed portion is inverted so that the entire gene is in the correct order. This method was attempted with the TET resistance gene with no results. We have looked at using several fluorescent proteins modified in this manner to study the Traveling Salesman. In this manner, the proteins would only be expressed if they had all been lined up in the correct order. This approach has some flaws however, all fluorescent proteins are similar in structure, so that even if the portions of two different genes come together, the resulting protein may still fluoresce. Additionally, fluorescent protiens have the ability to undergo fluorescent resonant energy transfer, FRET, a phenomenon in which energy absorbed by one molecule is directly transfered to a second molecule, this prevents the first molecule from emitting visible photons, so that it may remain undetected.

5/21

Students -- For this week and the first half of next, we will not be doing labwork as Dr. Eckdahl will be out of town until next Thursday afternoon. In the meantime, we can be investigating the two literature questions below. Please look for pertinent articles and include notes and references on the main WIKI page when you find something good. Our two questions are:

1. Can one promoter drive more than one coding sequence on a plasmid in bacteria? (i.e., Do polycistronic systems function one plasmids in bacteria?)

2. What promoters are available in the Registry or are known from the literature that we can control (either by inducing or repressing)?

Feel free to communicate via e-mail with Drs. Eckdahl and Poet as you find things. Be sure to document what you find as you find it so we can move forward as a team and not spend time duplicating our efforts.

5/23

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt came to campus today to sign an important piece of legislation providing funding for a 60,000 square foot addition to Agenstein Hall, Missouri Western's mathematics and science building and providing need-based scholarships for more students from Missouri. Governor Blunt addressed a standing room only crowd in Agenstein Room 205 and was accompanied by several state legislators including Shields, Schaaf, and Rucker. One MWSU student was asked to make comments while the governor signed the bill. That student was Davidson - Missouri Western iGEM team member Jordan Baumgardner. Jordan did a great job. Team member Tom Crowley and team co-leader Jeff Poet attended the signing ceremony as did 2006 team member Marian Broderick. This may be the first official plug for our 2007 team. Way to go!