Revision as of 06:30, 27 October 2008

Lysis gene (promotes lysis in colicin-producing bacteria strain)

This lysis gene encodes for the lysis protein in colicin-producing strains of bacteria. Once activated, it causes the host cell to lyze. It also removes the immunity protein out of colicin, and hence, activates the endonuclease activity of the colicin.

How does it work?

Lysis genes encode for the synthesis of Lysis protein. The Lysis protein is 4872Da in molecular weight and performs two functions that are instrumental to the activity of Colicin E7 (ColE7):

• Release of ColE7 from ColE7—Immunity complex
  

This function causes the detachment of ColE7 from Immunity protein, hence switches on the endonuclease activity of ColE7

• Partial lysis of host cell membrane
  

This function induces the lysis of host cell, exposing the interior cell contents and hence allows free diffusion of ColE7 proteins towards pathogenic bacteria strains.

NTU@ iGEM has designed and successfully synthesized Lysis genes into standard Biobrick construct using an Ampicillin resistant plasmid vector pSB1A2. The Colicin E7 with Immunity construct is 144 base pairs in length and formally registered in the Biobrick registry as the Biobrick BBa_K117000.

For more information on how this part operates in our Detection system, please visit BBa_K117010(detection system)

Sequence and Features