Part:BBa_K274120:Experience

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Characterization by UiOslo_Norway 2019

This part was of special interest to our team. The part consists of homologs of the genes we used; crtE, crtB and crtI from Deinococcus radiodurans. BBa_K274120 has individual ribosomal binding sites for each individual enzyme. The part that we made had a single ribosomal binding site followed by all three genes in a single open reading frame because the first two genes lacked stop codons (see BBa_K2971004 and BBa_K2971010). Figure 1 shows the result of expressing BBa_K274120 in E.coli (BL21) for 24 hours. The red coloration in the induced pellet is caused by the presence of lycopene. The induced culture with BBa_K274120 produced significant amount of lycopene when compared to expression of BBa_K2971004 (figure 2).

Figure 1: Induction of BBa_K274120 in Escherichia coli (BL21)
Expression was induced with 2% arabinose
From left to right :Uninduced E.coli with empty expression vector, induced E.coli with empty expression vector, uninduced E.coli with BBa_K274120, induced E.coli with BBa_K274120.

Figure 2: Expression of crtEBI in Escherichia coli (BL21)
Expression was induced with 2% arabinose
From left to right :Uninduced E.coli with empty expression vector, induced E.coli with empty expression vector, induced E.coli with crtEBI expression vector, uninduced E.coli with crtEBI expression vector.

Since the production of lycopene was so high in BBa_K274120 compared to our composite part we tried using the culture in a simple solar cell (figure 3). The design of the solar cell is comparable to a regular dye sensitized solar cell (see our design page).

Figure 3: Pelleted culture of E.coli expressing BBa_K274120 used in a simple solar cell
Expression was induced in 2% arabinose.
We did not observe any detectable current from this solar cell.

UNIQ760cc0679ea48fdb-partinfo-00000002-QINU UNIQ760cc0679ea48fdb-partinfo-00000003-QINU