Engineering tools for Gram positive bacteriaGram positive bacteria like Bacillus subtilis provide a number of benefits for synthetic biologists. B. subtilis is non-tranformable and naturally transformable, with an efficient system for homologous transformation. Gram positive bacteria provide the bulk of industrially important species and their architectures allow high level secretion of enzymes and other proteins. The Synthetic Biology group at the University of Cambridge is developing tools for work with B. subtilis. The pages in this section provide access to recent papers and relevant websites in the field.
Integration Vector BBa_K090403: The vector integrates into the chromosome and does not have a replication origin in Bacillus. Chromosomal integration is required for acquired antibiotic resistance. Shuttle Vector BBa_K090401/2: contain origins of replication that allow episomal growth in E. coli and B. subtilis. Constructed by the Cambridge iGEM2008 team.
Biogeoscientists show evidence of 90 billion tons of microbial organisms-expressed in terms of carbon mass-living in the deep biosphere, in a research article published online by Nature, July 20, 2008. This tonnage corresponds to about one-tenth of the amount of carbon stored globally in tropical rainforests. The authors: Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and Julius Lipp of the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at University of Bremen, Germany; and Fumio Inagaki and Yuki Morono of the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) concluded that about 87 percent of the deep biosphere consists of Archaea. This finding is in stark contrast to previous reports, which suggest that Bacteria dominate the subseafloor ecosystem. To reach this conclusion, the researchers investigated sediment cores collected from several hundred meters beneath the seafloor of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Black Sea. The cored sediments included samples that were the result of research expeditions conducted by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
A recent publication has reported the fabrication of a new microbial culture device containing an array of unprecedented density - a million growth chambers. This micro-Petri chip should impact on various fields, including biotechnology, ecology, food microbiology and drug development, by enabling high-throughput screens and therefore the detection of rare phenotypes within a large population of microorganisms.
Publication Date: 2008 Jul PMID: 18453020
Authors: Gefen, O. - Balaban, N. Q.
Journal: Trends Biotechnol
Image shows swarm of M. xanthus bacteria (left) invading a colony of prey bacteria (right). The rippling pattern is the highly organized behavior of thousands of M. xanthus cells working in concert to digest the prey. Credit: John Kirby, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine Like something from a horror movie, the swarm of bacteria ripples purposefully toward their prey, devours it and moves on.
Friday 16 January 2009
a SynBioStandards Network event
School of Computing Science University of Newcastle
A one-day workshop in Newcastle in January 2009, to bring together researchers interested in developing standards for using B. subtilis - a major new interest in the UK Synthetic Biology community, due to the potential benefits of the systems for homologous recombination, genomic assembly, protein secretion, biosafety, etc.
