Difference between revisions of "Part:BBa K4452007"

Revision as of 04:50, 10 October 2022

Pyrococcus furiosus ferritin (PFt)

A Pyrococcus furiosus ferritin mutant (PFt) which includes one point mutation (L55P), engineered by Matsumoto et al. to have an expanded iron core. This gene was added to the iGEM Registry as a part of a construct designed for implementing root magnetotropism by overexpressing ferritin in statoliths of columella cells in Arabidopsis thaliana. Engineered magnetotropism depends on efficiently loading the ferritin with iron.

Background

To restore directional root growth in microgravity, Hopkins iGEM 2022 proposed that the existing gravitropic mechanisms can be engineered to respond to an artificial cue. We set out to engineer roots to grow in the direction of magnetic field gradients: magnetotropism.

Plants sense gravity via statoliths—starch-laden organelles in root tip columella cells—which sediment due to their weight. Statolith sedimentation triggers changes in the efflux of auxin, a universal plant hormone that induces plant cell elongation. Polarized auxin accumulation along the upper and lower sides of roots causes differential elongation of cells, guiding root growth in the direction of gravity.

We predicted that filling statoliths with iron-loading proteins, like ferritin, would allow the statoliths to move in response to a magnetic gradient. For our project we designed a genetic construct that allows for ferritin to be expressed in Arabidopsis and imported into statoliths.

Sequence and Features