Difference between revisions of "Part:BBa K343007"

Revision as of 16:56, 22 October 2010

Photosensor generator

Background

This part constitutively expresses the protein from the coding sequence of BBa_K343003, which in turn makes E.Coli phototaxic when exposed to the right conditions. The promoter is inhibited by TetR, which in turn will not be active in the presence of tetracyclin.

Results

Bacteria containing this part will exhibit a lowered tumbling rate when exposed to blue light (wavelengths around 350nm - 450nm). This was analysed with the help of video microscopy and the open source software [http://db.cse.ohio-state.edu/CellTrack/ "CellTrack"]. The individual cells trajectory was tracked and their speed measured. The tracking results are as follows:

From left to right, trajectory of: E.Coli with photosensor exposed to blue light, E.Coli with photosensor exposed to red light and E.Coli Mg1655 Wildtype exposed to blue light: (Blue dots show the location of the cell in the given frame, so the number of dots equals the number of frames from the sample.)

The phototaxic bacteria move more in a straight line when exposed to bluelight, as can be seen when comparing the trajectories of the thee bacteria given earlier. These were taken from a batch of 10 cells tracked per sample.

Sequence and Features